


Power Rangers: Amalgams

by FlashNeko



Category: Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers in Space
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-10 19:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 40,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20857400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlashNeko/pseuds/FlashNeko
Summary: It has been twenty-five years since the war between the Power Rangers and the United Alliance of Evil was ended by the event known as the Z-Wave.  In that time, there have been no new Power Rangers and their legend has started to fade into history.But then, a group of five friends are recruited by the robot Delta-3 to discover the true effects the Z-Wave had upon the galaxy... and how they will need to become a new team of Power Rangers that draws on the strength of the past to protect their future.





	1. Dawn of the Dumpster (Part 1)

“Twenty-five years ago,” Mayor Jerome Stone said as he sat behind his desk, staring directly into the  
camera, “the final battle between the Power Rangers and the United Alliance of Evil took place in our  
city of Angel Grove.”

Pausing for dramatic effect, Mayor Stone rested his hands on the desktop before continuing. “That day  
saw the defeat of the Alliance but also marked the last time our brave heroes have appeared in battle as  
well. Some of them have returned to a civilian life, withdrawing from the public view to maintain their  
privacy. Others, as we well know, have embraced the spotlight and gone on to do great things with  
their well-deserved fame and fortune.”

He paused again, tilting his head upwards slightly in a way that made him seem like he was looking at  
something far in the distance above. “Some have headed out into the stars, either to return to their  
home on another world or to seek out new life and new civilizations.”

His face grew sadder as he resumed looking at the camera again. “And of course we cannot forget, we  
must not forget, the ones lost to tragedies unrelated to the battles they fought on our behalf for five long  
years.”

The mayor's memorial speech continued on the television, but Jason Oliver had to stop paying attention  
as a rolled up white towel was flung at the back of his head. Grunting in annoyance at the impact, he  
narrowed his brown colored eyes and turned to glare at the one who had thrown the towel at him.

“Come on, Jason,” his sister Sarah taunted, bouncing from foot to foot on the practice mat that was in  
the center of the work-out area of the Bulk Up Gym and Juice Bar, “We've only got an hour until we  
have to go meet dad and we still need to settle what we're getting for lunch.”

“Okay okay,” Jason grumbled as he smoothed out the front of his red karate gi and turned away from  
the television behind the main juice bar.

The Bulk Up was a relic of an older time. Its neon colored walls and floors were overpoweringly  
bright with cut-outs of palm trees and neon tubes of many colors molded into the shape of “tropical”  
suns on them that were remains of the time it had been called The Surf Shop. It was too much color, in  
Jason's opinion, and he preferred going to the gym that was in Stone Canyon even though that was not  
currently an option.

Straightening out her own dark green colored gi before reaching back to make sure her equally dark,  
black hair was secure in its long ponytail, Sarah waited for Jason to take his place on the other side of  
the practice mat. The two then bowed to each other before they both adopted a fighting stance and  
Sarah beckoned Jason towards her with a wave of her hand.

Jason carefully approached, lightly bouncing on the balls of his feet before lashing out with a forward  
kick that Sarah blocked with a sweep of her left arm. She counter attacked with a right straight punch,  
which Jason just barely blocked with his own right arm before he took a step back. He then attempted  
to go for a surprise sweep, crouching down as he swung his left leg to try and strike hers.

Sarah almost casually hopped over the sweeping kick and then lashed out with a kick of her own aimed  
at Jason's chest while he was still in a crouching position. Jason managed to bring both of his arms up  
to prevent the blow from landing but the force of the strike was still enough that he lost his balance and  
fell onto his back.

“Not a bad idea,” Sarah said as she took several steps back, “but you're still hesitating when you crouch  
down before you do the kick. You have to do it fast and smooth or your opponent will see it coming a  
mile away.”

Jason frowned slightly before doing a kip up to get back to his feet. The two of them once again took  
on their fighting stances before Jason took the offense again, throwing three quick jabs with his left fist  
before trying a knee strike aimed at Sarah's stomach. His sister blocked all of his attacks before she  
crouched down and lashed out with a sweep of her own that was so fast Jason barely had time to  
register she was doing it before his legs were knocked out from under him and he was flat on his back  
again.

“See?” Sarah commented with a small smirk.

Slapping the mat in frustration, Jason did another kip up and barely waited for Sarah to get back into  
position before attacking again, aiming a roundhouse kick at her side. Sarah caught his leg coming in,  
taking hold of his ankle and leaving him hopping on one foot as she stared at him firmly. “Still need to  
work on getting frustrated too easily,” she noted.

Jason intended to retort through gritted teeth but before he could Sarah suddenly shoved his leg  
backwards. Going with the motion, Jason used the momentum to do a back flip and pull his leg free of  
her grip. He intended to land on his feet in a ready position but instead he staggered about awkwardly  
for a moment before dropping to one knee. “I see you've been practicing that counter I taught you,”  
Sarah said, “just loosen up a little on the landing and you'll get it.”

“Hey, guys!” the lanky young man working behind the main juice bar yelled at them, “The news just  
said they're doing some construction today on the west highway. You should probably start heading out  
now if you want to be able to spend time with your pops!”

“Thanks,” Jason sighed as he got back to his feet, “We'll do that.”

Sarah and Jason went back to their separate sides of the mat and bowed to each other again. “The spicy  
chicken bucket from Cluck Hut again?” Jason asked.

“You still haven't managed to land a hit yet,” Sarah replied, “So yes.”

Jason sighed again and started walking towards the locker room. “Hey, Jason!” Sarah called out, “You  
are getting better! Just keep at it!”

He waved over his shoulder to indicate that he had heard her but did not turn around as he pushed open  
the men's locker room door and let it swing shut behind him.

“He okay?” the man behind the counter asked, “He looked a little miffed.”

“He'll be fine ,” Sarah replied, letting out a sigh of her own, “Just needs a day or two to adjust to being  
here. Again.”

“Maybe he just needs a blanket that smells like him to take in the car when he gets driven over!”

Sarah gave the man a flat look. “He's my brother, not a dog.”

The man replied with a high pitch laugh that ended in a pair of snorts.

//

It was only the start of summer, so there was still a cool spring breeze in the air. Jason enjoyed the feel  
of it on his face as he stepped out of the Bulk Up wearing a red tank top and blue sweatpants. He  
looked over at Sarah, who was wearing a dark green t-shirt and black slacks, and said, “Mom sent  
enough money to my account so I can get a Zuum driver to take us instead of the bus.”

“Nah,” Sarah replied, “We already have a ride.”

After looking around for a moment, Sarah waved at one of the cars in the parking lot. In response, the  
engine of an old looking, sky-blue colored Beetle sputtered to life before pulling out of its parking spot  
and drove up to the curb to meet them.

Something about the car looked familiar to Jason but he was unable to place it until the driver rolled  
down their window and he got a good look at the face of the woman clad in a blue turtleneck sweater  
and blue jeans behind the wheel. “Amber!” he exclaimed, “You finally got this old clunker running?!”

Amber smiled shyly, not looking Jason in the eye as she pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her  
nose and replied, “Affirmative. Phenomenus' Repair Emporium had the reproduction or otherwise  
compatible parts I needed. Even the right color of urethane auto paint I wanted too.”

Sarah and Jason walked to the other side of the car to enter through the passenger side door. Sarah  
moved quickly to cut off Jason so she could slide into the backseat. “You got shotgun, bro,” she said.

Jason shrugged, took the front seat, and buckled himself in. As he did so he failed to notice Amber  
giving Sarah a panicked look and Sarah giving her a smirk and a wink in response. “I'm glad I  
remembered finding that place last time I was here so I could let you know about it. But all the parts in  
the world wouldn't mean a thing if you weren't such a good mechanic,” he said once he had secured  
himself, “I knew you could do it.”

“Y-Your continued positive belief in my automotive restoration capabilities is appreciated,” Amber  
replied, managing to calm herself as she put the car into gear, started to drive, and added under her  
breath, “Massively appreciated.”

After several seconds of silence as Amber pulled the car out of the lot and onto the road, she asked, “So  
where to first? Diva's Pizza?”

“Cluck Hut,” Sarah replied as Jason winced in annoyance.

“I see,” Amber all but whispered before clearing her throat, “So how long are you in town for this  
visitation, Jason? Just the weekend?”

“Actually,” Jason replied, his expression further souring, “it might be most of the summer. Mom had to  
go to Europe to cover this year's Teen World Peace Conference.”

“Prodigious!” Amber exclaimed happily before noticing Jason's displeasure, “I mean, this will provide  
us time to participate in activities together. If you want.”

After another short pause she added, “A-And we could invite Buff and Rich to hang out too. If you  
feel that would be more conducive to your comfort.”

Jason smiled sadly, looking out the window of the car as he replied, “We'll see.”

Sarah frowned as she lightly kicked the back of Jason's chair, earning her a glare from her brother  
before she nodded her head in Amber's direction. A look of confusion came over Jason's face for a  
moment until he looked at Amber as well and saw the dejected expression she had in response to his  
noncommittal answer.

“But I appreciate the invitation,” he hastily said, “Thank you. Maybe we can go to Diva's tomorrow or  
some--”

The words died on Jason's lips and a look of confusion washed over his face as he saw something out  
of the corner of his eye and he turned to look out the window at it. At first, he had thought it was some  
kind of jet leaving behind a vapor trail as it cut through the sky. When he followed the trail to its  
source, he was shocked instead to see what looked like a flying car instead.

The flying car appeared to be the same model as the one he was currently a passenger in except it was a  
dull white color, had what looked to be some kind of extra external engine attached to the back bumper,  
and was in mid-air instead of driving along the road. The car was moving so quickly that by the time  
Jason rubbed his eyes and looked back to verify what he had seen, it was already out of sight.

Sarah, concerned with her bother's odd behavior, asked, “You okay?”

“I thought I saw--” Jason stopped, shaking his head, “Never mind. Probably just a weird cloud or  
something.”

//

The engine of the flying car began to rattle as it picked up speed. “Hope this is the right place,” the  
driver said as she pressed her foot down harder on the gas pedal, her voice having a slightly distorted  
quality like she was speaking underwater, “I don't think we'll be able to get back into space if it's not.”

“It should be on the mountain top just outside of the city,” the being in the passenger side seat replied,  
“or at least what's left of it.”

The driver was dressed in a simple pink jumpsuit and could have almost passed as a young woman in  
her late teens. The top of her head, instead of having hair, had gray flesh with purple blotches. A large  
ridge of bone covered the back of her head, wrapped around the sides, arched around her ears and  
encircled the top half of her face like a domino mask. A small white pearl rested in the spot between  
her lavender colored eyes, both flickering in annoyance as she grumbled, “Let's hope what's left is  
enough.”

The passenger could not have passed for human in any capacity as he was a robot. His rectangular  
torso was a deep shade of blue with a large, glowing green lightning bolt in the center. The robot's  
arms and legs were made from similar looking, rounded segments that were covered with a protective  
silver coating of flexible metals to hold them together. His hands were human-like with thick fingers,  
his feet were large, flat, and round, and his faceless, gold colored head was an ovular dome with a black  
sensor bar front and center. A green light moved back and forth on the bar as he said, “What we have  
of the Z Archives hasn't been wrong yet, Valestera. I don't even want to compute what it would mean if  
they were now! We're running out of time!”

A loud bang emanated from under the hood of the flying car and Valestera's eyes widened as the car  
began to lose altitude. “Hang on, Delta!” she exclaimed, “The flight compensator is failing! We need  
to set down and drive the rest of the way!”

“Oh my my my!” Delta cried as his arms wrapped around the cylindrical object on his lap, “That's  
going to give us even less time to work with!”

To Valestera the object Delta clutched so tightly looked like nothing more than a small metallic space  
dumpster. Yet, if the Z Archives were right, that space dumpster held the key to protecting the  
universe.

//

“Welcome to Cluck Hut! Home of the Big Buck-Buck-Bucket! How can I help you?”

The teen-aged boy behind the counter was dressed in his work uniform of a black dress shirt that had the  
company logo embroidered on the right side breast and a name tag that said “Rich” pinned to the left.  
On his head was a black baseball cap that had large, cartoon eyes embroidered on the front and a large  
red rooster comb sewn on the top.

While he did not seem completely miserable in the clothing or at work, the smile he gave as part of his  
greeting was obviously less genuine than it could have been. That changed when he finally took stock  
of the customers before him and his face lit up in legitimate happiness. “Jason!” he exclaimed as he  
reached over the counter to exchange a high-five. “Good to see you, man! What time did you get in?”

“Late,” Jason replied, “or maybe early depending on how you look at it. Mom had to catch a red eye  
flight out of AGI to Geneva.”

“And instead of driving in a day early and getting a hotel room, she decided it was a better idea to just  
drive through the night and wake me and dad up at too early o'clock to drop him off,” Sarah added as  
she leaned against the wall next to the cardboard cutout of the anthropomorphic black rooster carrying  
a bucket of fried chicken under its wing that was Cluck Hut's mascot.

“She's going to GENEVA?!” Rich all but screamed, slapping his hands down on the counter as his jaw  
dropped open in shock, “That means she's covering the Peace Conference! Why didn't you tell me?!”

“Should I have?” Jason asked, sharing a confused look with Sarah.

“Yes!” Rich exclaimed, “Two of the ORIGINAL Power Rangers are going to be there this year! Two  
of the three who went to the very first one! They almost NEVER make public appearances! The only  
ones you see less of are the first Blue Ranger and the last Red and Yellow Rangers! And that's because  
they... y'know.. live on other planets!”

“Don't think even Jas' mom could talk them into signing one of your copies of Red 2 Blue, dummy.”

The three turned their heads towards the source of the voice as Rich replied, “I know THAT, Buff!  
Just... ANY signature or even just a picture of them would be AWESOME!”

Jason had always been impressed by how much Buff generally lived up to his nickname in terms of his  
physique. The yellow t-shirt he wore strained again his large chest muscles and the black leather jacket  
over it had the sleeves ripped off to display his muscular arms. He smirked at the group from where he  
sat at one of the booths near the front window and said, “Only really little kids or old geezers are into  
Power Rangers anymore. What are you? Nine or ninety?”

“Leave him alone, Buff,” Sarah said flatly.

As if only noticing her at that moment, Buff smiled widely, popped a french fry in his mouth, and said  
in an overly cheerful voice, “Hey there, Muscle Head. How's it going?”

Sarah took a deep breath and then suddenly matched his smile and overly cheerful tone as she replied,  
“I'm doing just fine, BUFFORD.”

Deciding to ignore the situation for the moment as Sarah and Buff continued flashing their tense,  
strained smiles at each other, Jason turned back to Rich. “Mom said she'd try and call us when she gets  
to the hotel. I'll ask her about it when she does. Promise.”

Rich looked at Jason in awe, his eyes misting up as he sniffed and said in a quivering voice, “You are  
an incredible human being. I mean that, man. This is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

“PLEASE,” Buff interjected, over-dramatically sticking his finger in his mouth, “I'm trying to eat  
here.”

“Your need to mock everyone and everything is a real problem,” Sarah said flatly.

“Hey!” Buff replied, picking up a french fry to point at Sarah for emphasis, “I don't have a problem! I  
can stop mocking people anytime I want!”

“And if someone else wants you to stop?”

Buff's smile grew warmer as he raised an eyebrow and said, “Okay, THAT might be a small problem.”

The four of them laughed, Sarah rolling her eyes as she groaned, “You're hopeless.”

//

Amber drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she waited in the car. As much as she enjoyed the  
company of her friends, sometimes she just needed a little bit to be alone with her own thoughts.

Those thoughts turned towards the weather, which had suddenly started to change. What had once  
been clear blue skies became dark with heavy, rippling storm clouds that blotted out the sun. Lightning  
regularly arched across the sky, followed by loud claps of thunder that caused the car to shake and  
Amber began to worry that Jason and Sarah would be caught in the downpour that threatened to start at  
any moment.

A loud bang from something other than the sky caught her attention and Amber looked over to see a car  
that looked much like her own pulling into the next parking spot. It was the same model but painted  
white, had what looked to be some form of extra engine stuck to the back, and had smoke puffing out  
from under the hood. Amber watched in concern as the car shook in place, as if the occupants were  
moving about frantically, before the driver's side door opened and someone stepped out.

The person was dressed in a pink jumpsuit, which was unusual enough on its own, as well as a baseball  
cap with the brim pulled down as far as it could go, heavy looking sunglasses, and a medical mask  
covering their mouth. Amber noticed that the person looked highly distressed as they swiftly moved to  
the front of the car. They tried to lift up the hood but quickly pulled their hands back as they burned  
their fingers on the hot metal.

Slowly stepping out of her own car, Amber overheard the person saying to the smoking vehicle, “We're  
so close! Why couldn't you hold out thirty more minutes?! Dad is going to be so mad...”

“E-Excuse me,” Amber said softly, causing the other person to start slightly in surprise, “Do you  
require assistance?”

“No!” the person shouted, making Amber jump slightly at the volume despite the muffling effect of the  
mask, “It's fine! I'm fine! We're fine!”

“A-Are you positive?” Amber asked, “From the coloration and consistency of the smoke, combined  
with the sounds the engine made as it halted and your reaction when you attempted to inspect under the  
hood, I'd hypothesize it's an overheated engine.”

As the person continued to look at her with very impatient looking body language, Amber hastily  
added, “O-Or I could just contact your preferred form of roadside assistance...”

“Can an overheated engine be fixed quickly?”

Surprised at the person's change in tone, Amber noticed their stance had become less hostile and more  
appraising. “Potentially,” she replied, “It would hinge on if it was simply a matter of resupplying its  
coolant or if there is structural damage to the engine.”

“Hey, Amber!” Sarah called out as she and Jason exited the Cluck Hut, the latter carrying a large  
bucket of chicken under his arm, “What's up?”

“Just seeing if...” Amber paused, looking at the person with a questioning look.

The person grunted once before saying, “Vales-- no. Val! Just call me, Val!”

“Just seeing if Val needs help before it starts raining.”

“What's with that, anyway?” Jason asked as he looked up at the dark clouds, “It was supposed to be  
clear skies all day.”

Sarah looked up as well, chuckling softly. “They say when the weather turned like this, Rita Repulsa  
and Lord Zedd were up to something on the moon. Spooooky.”

“Yeah, kinda doubt that's happening,” Jason said.

A loud beeping noise drew everyone's attention back to the white car, which Jason realized looked  
exactly like the one he thought he had seen flying earlier. The sound was emanating from something  
covered by a heavy blanket in the passenger seat and he noticed that Val looked nervous as she started  
to back step towards the other side of the car. “Excuse me,” she said, “I need to turn off the alarm on  
my... my...”

She cast a quick look at the covered object and the shape it resembled as she finished by saying, “My  
lamp! The alarm on my lamp!”

Jason shared a confused look with Sarah and Amber and, once Val was on the other side of the vehicle,  
he leaned closer to them and whispered, “Guys, this is going to sound hard to believe but I thought I  
saw that car flying in the sky before.”

“You're right,” Sarah replied as she whispered back, “That is hard to believe.”

“Especially since that vehicle seems barely capable of ground traversal,” Amber added.

“I know, I know,” Jason said, “It's just... weird.”

As the three conversed, Val leaned in the passenger side window and harshly whispered, “Delta! What  
are you doing?!”

“What's going on out there, Valestera?” the hidden robot whispered back, “I'm suddenly getting  
multiple Grid Compatibility readings nearby and a massive spike in Dark Energy!”

“Grid Compatibility?!” she hissed as quietly as she could despite her surprise, “There's three humans  
here but--”

A bolt of lightning suddenly struck the concrete of the parking lot only a few feet away from the group.  
Val looked up in alarm as Jason, Sarah, and Amber all scrambled back from the point of impact.

“Prodigious!” Amber gasped, “This is an unusually volatile storm front for this time of year!”

Three more bolts of lightning hit the ground close to the group, making them flinch back further away  
from where they hit. The door to the Cluck Hut swung open and Buff leaned out of it to shout, “Get in  
here, morons!”

“Sounds like a good idea to me!” Jason shouted before looking over at where Val was standing up,  
“C'mon! It's not safe out here!”

“You have no idea,” Val replied as she looked up at the sky, “It looks like we were too late.”

“Too late?” Jason asked, “What's that supposed to mean?!”

The answer came in the form of one final bolt of lightning lancing downwards and forking into twelve  
smaller bolts that surrounded the four of them and the white car. Instead of crashing into the ground,  
the electricity began to twist into humanoid shapes before there was a final flash of light that quickly  
faded to reveal a group of creatures the transformed energy had left behind.

The humanoid creatures were covered from head-to-toe in black feathers, their wing-like arms leading  
down to clawed fingers, and their faces resembling the sharp beaks and beady black eyes of a crow. All  
of them were dressed in identically molded purple armor that, combined with how similar their faces  
and builds were, made them seem more like mass produced things rather than individual beings.

“Found ya, little fishie,” one of them squawked as the others began to caw threateningly, “Hand over  
the robot and the dumpster and you'll be the only one who gets hurt!”

“And if I refuse?” Val asked as she got into a combat stance.

“Then everyone else gets hurt first!”

Sarah had been staring at the monsters in shock but at their words her eyes narrowed and she asked,  
“Jason, that thing just threatened us, didn't it?”

“Yeah,” Jason replied, shaking off his own surprise as he placed the bucket of chicken on the ground,  
“It did.”

“I'm sorry to drag you into this,” Val said, “but can the three of you fight at all?”

“My brother and I can,” Sarah replied as the two of them took up their own combat stances.

“Negative,” Amber all but whispered nervously, “I prefer avoidance to direct combat.”

“We'll have her stick behind us,” Sarah said to Val.

“You're gonna be okay,” Jason said to Amber, “Promise.”

“Let's make a liar out of him, boys,” the talking bird monster shrieked, “Get 'em!”

At the door to the Cluck Hut, Buff's eyes were bulging wide and his jaw had dropped so low it  
appeared to be threatening to separate from the rest of his skull. “What ARE those things?!”

He received an answer in the form of nearly being bowled over by Rich as the small teen raced past  
him and began making a beeline for where the fight was starting. “TENGAS!” he all but squealed,  
“THOSE ARE REAL TENGAS!”

Three of the Tengas broke from the circle to charge forward, the first lashing out with a swipe of its  
talons aimed at Jason's face. Jason only just barely pulled his head back in time before countering with  
a straight punch to the Tenga's chest. He then lashed out with a kick aimed at the monster's stomach  
and, once that blow landed, followed it up with two jumping spin kicks that hit the Tenga flush on the  
side of its beak.

Jason felt a surge of confidence at how easily he had hit his early offense but it quickly faded as he saw  
the Tenga seemed merely annoyed instead of hurt by his attacks. The bird monster then slashed at him  
two more times, which Jason was again hard pressed to avoid, before it lashed out with a kick of its  
own that hit him hard enough that he was sent flying into the side of the white car.

“Jason!” Sarah cried out in alarm before she was forced to pay attention to her own attacker.

The Tenga approaching her went for an overhead chop, which she blocked with both arms. Sarah grit  
her teeth as the force of the blow threatened to send her to her knees. She shifted her hands so that she  
could grab the Tenga's wrist and used its own strength to flip it onto its back. The bird-like monster  
quickly hopped back up to its feet but Sarah struck it again with a spinning back elbow that hit it in the  
solar plexus area.

Sarah's eyes widened in surprise as the Tenga staggered back a few steps before shaking off the blow.  
It then jumped into the air, lashing out with both feet in a dropkick that had enough force to send her  
flying back against the car as well despite her managing to block the worst of the impact with her arms.

Val did not wait for the Tenga rushing towards her to make the first attack. Instead, the second it drew  
close enough, she thrust her arms forward to land a double palm strike into its gut that knocked the  
Tenga over. Once it was down Val dropped to one knee and punched it in the chest twice, followed up  
with four elbow strikes to the same spot and, when she stood up again she raised her right leg to bring it  
down in a crushing ax kick.

As the Tenga slowly rolled away from her, Val cast a brief look over her shoulder at Jason and Sarah.  
“I've fought these things before,” she snapped, “They're tough at first but can wear them out! Don't let  
up for a second!”

“You okay?” Sarah asked Jason as she readied herself for battle again.

“Yeah,” Jason replied as he did the same before yelling over towards Val, “Thanks for the tip!”

The brother and sister nodded at each other before both leaped into the air, landing a double flying kick  
on the chest of the Tenga that had initially attacked Sarah. As the Tenga was falling over they turned to  
face the one that had first attacked Jason. Sarah ducked low with a leg sweep aimed at the Tenga's  
shins while Jason went high with a jumping roundhouse kick aimed at the back of its head. The Tenga,  
unsure if it needed to jump or duck, was hit by both moves and landed flat on its face.

By that point, Sarah's Tenga had gotten back to its feet. Jason and Sarah then aimed twin side-kicks  
that hit it on the jawline area of its head before turning on their heels to do the same to Jason's Tenga  
once it stood up again. They then alternated between throwing left and right punches simultaneously  
until the Tenga flopped onto its backside and looked over at more of its fellows that had remained in  
the circle. “I guess they're tougher than they look,” one of the Tenga in the circle said, “You want us to  
take over?”

“We outnumber them,” the Tenga that had rolled away from Val snapped as it finally got back to its  
feet, “Why are we attacking one at a time?!”

The other Tenga looked at each other, shrugged, and then began to slowly advance inward.

“Oh, this isn't good,” Jason muttered.

Sarah looked over at Val as the three of them regrouped for the monsters next attack. “Any more  
advice?” she asked.

“Not really,” Val replied trying to keep the nervousness over the fact she had never fought this many at  
one time before out of her voice.

One of the Tenga stopped short on its approach as it felt a tug on its arm. Looking towards the source,  
it squawked in surprise to see Rich inspecting the wing. The young man was in awe as he ran his  
fingers over the feathers. “Wow,” he whispered reverently, “They're softer than they look.”

“Thanks?” the Tenga responded in confusion, “I try to preen at least twice a da-- WAIT A MINUTE!”

The monster yanked its arm away before trying to backhand Rich as it snarled, “Let go of me, human!”

Rich was still smiling as he ducked the blow by going down into a split and then hopping back up  
again. “Took you a second there,” he commented, “Maybe your IQ really is under ten.”

The Tenga growled as it tried to swipe at Rich again but he avoided it by shifting his upper body from  
side to side. He lightly bounced on his feet as if he was moving to unheard music, still grinning from  
ear to ear. Sniffing the air he added, “And you kinda do smell like spoiled fish on a hot summer's day.”

“Oh I have HAD it with y--”

A large, meaty fist smashed into the side of the Tenga's beak causing it to stagger back. Buff, who was  
the source of the blow, turned to glare at Rich as he snapped, “What are you DOING, you DORK?!”

Still swaying from side to side, Rich replied, “Hiphopkido.”

“That's not what I--” Buff turned back to punch the Tenga between the eyes as it charged, “Never mind.  
The rest of the dweebs need our help!”

As the fight continued, Amber had slowly slipped around the white car and tried to use it as cover. She  
bumped against the passenger side door and was startled to hear a muffled voice coming from the  
“lamp” under the large blanket. “Valestera?! Oh my my my! You're worrying me!”

Surprised, Amber reached into the open window and yanked the blanket down to expose Delta's domed  
head. The two stared at each other for several seconds before Delta said, “You... aren't Valestera.”

“And you're a fully-sentient multifunctional automaton,” Amber replied, reaching up to adjust her  
glasses.

Delta continued to stare until a loud beep emanated from his body and he exclaimed, “You're also one  
of the Grid Compatibility readings!”

“Grid Compatibility?” Amber asked in confusion.

As they conversed, two of the Tenga looked at each other quietly before each brought their fingers to  
their beaks in a shushing gesture before they slowly began sneaking on their tip-toes towards Amber.  
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the reflection of the sneaking Tengas in the rear view mirror.  
Reaching in the car, she grabbed hold of the blanket resting on top of Delta. Once the Tenga were close  
enough, she suddenly yanked the blanket out the window and threw it over their heads.

Caught off-guard, the Tenga struggled as they flailed against each other under the cloth in their  
attempts to shrug it off. While they were distracted Amber rushed over and rammed her shoulder into  
the wriggling mass. Off-balance and disoriented, the two Tenga tripped over each other and fell to the  
ground, entangling themselves in the blanket even more. Throwing open the car door, Amber helped  
Delta out as she exclaimed, “This vehicle is insufficient for continued safety! Let's try to get to mine!”

“My my MY!” Delta exclaimed as he got to his feet, clutching the dumpster in his arms tighter as he  
looked over at the still struggling Tenga on the ground, “I overheard you saying you couldn't fight.”

“Like I said,” Amber replied as she started guiding Delta, “I prefer avoidance to direct combat!”

As Amber and Delta tried to skirt around the fight, Val found herself flanked by two Tengas. The one  
in front of her charged and she landed a forward kick to its stomach before she attempted a spinning  
backfist on the one coming up from behind. To her surprise, the Tenga managed to catch her arm and  
held it in an iron grip. As she struggled to free herself, the other Tenga moved back in to punch her in  
the gut and then smacked her with a backhanded blow that sent her hat and sunglasses flying.

Seeing that she was visibly dazed, the Tenga holding her arm let go so that it could strike her with a  
kick aimed at the small of her back. The force of the impact sent her staggering forward several steps  
before she started to fall forward. Managing to catch herself at the last second, Val turned the fall into a  
forward roll that let her get some distance from her attackers. She got up to one knee and winced from  
how her spine and stomach ached before she cast a quick glance in Jason and Sarah's direction.

The brother and sister continued to fight side-by-side, sandwiching a Tenga's head between a pair of  
opposite side roundhouse kicks. They quickly followed up with a pair of open palm strikes that  
knocked the Tenga down before they briefly paused to look at each other.

“We need to regroup,” Sarah snapped, seeing another Tenga approaching them from the left.

“Good idea,” Jason agreed, seeing another Tenga approaching from the right, “”We've got a better  
chance if we can all watch each others bac--”

He was cut off as a Tenga that had taken to the sky swooped down, wrapped its talon-tipped feet around  
his shoulders, and jerked him up into the air.

“Jason!” Sarah cried out in alarm, the distraction costing her as the two approaching Tenga and the one  
she and Jason had been fighting simultaneously kicked at her torso.

The combined impact was enough to knocked the air from Sarah's lungs and sent her flying backwards  
into the side of the white car for a second time. She fell to her knees, wheezing and coughing before  
noticing the still kneeling Val to her right. The two stared at each other for several seconds as Val  
realized her alien nature was now fully on display.

“Still processing... the bird guys,” Sarah gasped, “React to you... later.”

“If we make it,” Val glumly replied as she pulled off the medical mask that no longer served a purpose,  
“You can gawk all you want.”

Sarah managed to draw in a deep breath as she struggled to stand. “I will, thank you.”

Buff hit the Tenga in front of him with two left jabs and then a right cross. In response, the monster  
covered its face with its arms and Buff continued jabbing away as he taunted, “You're why this move's  
called 'Rope-a-DOPE'!”

He was so focused on his offense that he failed to notice another Tenga moving in from the side until it  
swept out his legs from under him. Landing hard on his back, Buff looked up at the two Tenga with  
wide eyes. “If I'm a dope,” the Tenga he had been punching taunted back as they reached down and  
bodily lifted a struggling Buff over their heads, “then you're an airhead! So we're gonna give you a  
LOT of air!”

“Th-That's really unnecessary guys,” Buff exclaimed, “So could you just put me down?!”

“Okay!” both Tenga chirped before tossing him with all their might towards Val and Sarah.

“Someone catch meeeeeee!” Buff shrieked as he soared through the air.

Sarah, who had gotten back to her feet, lunged forward to try and do so but she was half a second too  
slow and he crashed onto the asphalt in front of her. “Sorry Buff,” she groaned sheepishly.

“You... tried... Muscle Head,” Buff grunted in reply before rolling over and sitting up.

Rich was a whirling dervish of motion as he ducked, dodged, weaved around, and otherwise avoided  
the swiping blows of the two Tenga that chased him. Trying to get some distance, Rich began a series  
of back flips. The Tenga paused for a moment to watch and when Rich stopped, he wondered if he had  
somehow impressed them with his agility.

That line of thought faded as he was grabbed from behind in a hammerlock by a third Tenga and the  
first two resumed their approach. He tried to lash out with his feet but the Tenga in front of him each  
caught one of his legs.

“Uh oh,” he muttered as the three Tenga began rocking him back and forth, building momentum until  
they tossed him towards the other humans.

He landed stomach first on Buff's lap, the larger teenager looking down in concern as he asked, “You  
okay, you dummy?”

“Touched Tenga feathers,” Rich wheezed in reply, “Almost worth it.”

Up above, Jason's constant struggling as he reached up and grabbed hold of the ankles of the flying  
Tenga ensured it did not fly too high. The height was still a concern however, and Jason yanked down  
as hard as he could while letting his body become dead weight. “Put me down, feather face!” he  
snarled.

“You humans REALLY need to be more careful when you say that,” the Tenga responded.

It then managed to pull one of its feet free and kicked down at Jason's head. The blow was strong  
enough that he lost his grip on the Tenga's other ankle and Jason began to fall.

Two things prevented the fall from being more harmful than it could have been. The first was that the  
act of kicking down had caused the Tenga to dip lower in the sky, reducing the height of the decent.  
The second was that they had maneuvered over the white car, so the roof that Jason landed on was just  
high enough to cut off his momentum before it became too dangerous.

It was still a painful impact as Jason hit feet first, sending a wave of pain bouncing from the bottom of  
his soles to the top of his skull. His momentum carried into a forward tumble that caused him to roll  
down the front of the car and land in a heap on the ground. “Ow,” he groaned as he sat up, “Everyone  
okay?”

“No,” Buff and Rich chimed in together.

“Been better,” Sarah said, glaring at the Tengas as they slowly started to close in on them now that they  
were mostly cornered.

“You're all in this spot because of me,” Val said softly, her fists clenching tighter in frustration, “I'm  
sorry.”

Jason noticed that behind the Tenga, Amber and the strange little robot she had gotten out of the white  
car were almost to the blue one. He grit his teeth as he staggered back to his feet. “C'mon guys,” he  
said, “I'm not giving these chicken lips the satisfaction of just giving up.”

“I hear that,” Buff said as he shoved Rich off him so he could stand up as well, “If I'm going down, I'm  
going down swinging.”

“You're not going anywhere without me,” Rich added as he stood up as well, “If we're fighting Power  
Ranger monsters, may as well make a Power Rangers-like last stand, right?”

Val bit her lower lip for a moment before she said, “You... all seem like decent people.”

“So do you,” Sarah said, a grim smile coming to her lips as she readied herself, “Can't leave a decent  
person hanging, now can we?”

“We're almost there,” Delta whispered to Amber as they crept towards the blue car and watched the  
others brace for the Tenga's advance.

“But... my compatriots,” Amber whispered back, “They're trying to protect us. Protect me. Isn't there  
some course of action we can undertake?”

“Oh my my my my my,” Delta all but sighed, “I don't know. I--”

Suddenly, the robot's head perked up as if an idea just struck it. “There may be something,” he said,  
“I'm getting five Grid Compatibility readings so it could work. And the influx of energy to the  
Morphing Grid might--”

“We don't have time for prolonged hypothesizing!”

At Amber's hushed shout, Delta pointed the lid of the space dumpster in his hands towards her. She  
noticed a small number pad in the center of the silvery object as Delta said, “You're right. I would have  
liked to have done this under more controlled circumstances but we're out of time. If you and your  
friends are what I think you are, then I need you to enter the code three-three-five-six-three-four-two  
and then hit the star key.”

“And if we're not?” Amber asked nervously as her hand moved towards the keypad.

“Then it was very nice meeting you for these few minutes.”

Amber nodded and tapped in the code, pausing just a moment before hitting the star key.

“Grid Compatibility confirmed,” a robotic voice calmly said as the lid of the space dumpster suddenly  
dropped to the ground, “Code accepted. Beginning Amalgamation.”

The next thing anyone knew, five beams of different colored light shot out of the open space dumpster.  
The beams, which were red, black, blue, yellow, and pink, rose up into the air before arching back  
down and descending towards the ones beneath them. The humans, alien, robot, and Tengas all looked  
up to marvel at the sudden light display, the monsters drawing back as four of the beams struck  
members of the group in front of them and the fifth struck at the one behind them.

Jason marveled as the beam of red light hit his waist, a strange sensation rippling through his body that  
made him feel like his skin was on fire but also like he had been invigorated with a rush of power  
unlike anything he had ever felt before. From how Buff, Rich, Val, and Amber were reacting to being  
hit by the yellow, black, pink, and blue beams in the same manner, he imagined they were feeling the  
same way.

He saw Sarah looking at them in confused horror as the colored lights began to spread over the rest of  
their bodies, paralyzed by shock as she began to shout, “Jason! Guys! What's happening to--”

And then his vision momentarily went white.

//

When the light faded Jason, Amber, Buff, Val, and Rich found themselves looking at another place.  
The five stood in a darkened, futuristic looking, circular room filled with control panels that beeped  
softly and were all labeled with alien looking lettering. Behind them was a large, circular monitor  
resting on a pedestal and in front of them, suspended high off the ground, was a large tube of softly  
glowing blue energy.

“Where are we?” Jason gasped, a feeling of numbness washing over his body as if the nerve endings on  
his body had shorted out.

“And why does everything feel so...” Buff started to ask, wriggling his fingers as he searched for the  
right word, “... mushy?”

“Because we're not someplace else,” Val answered, the jewel on her forehead glowing softly, “Not  
physically at least. This is a Psychic Time Dilation Message.”

“Using the name to form a hypothesis,” Amber said as she looked around nervously, “I'm presuming  
this is something occurring rapidly in real time but is being displayed to our conscious minds at a rate  
that it will be more conducive to processing and understanding the information it is trying to convey.”

“Pretty much,” Val said, flashing Amber a small smile, “We could be in here for an hour and barely a  
second will pass outside.”

“So we'll have to wait until we're done to get pecked to pieces,” Buff grumbled, “Good to know.”

“Guys,” Rich whispered almost reverently as he took stock of their surroundings, “This place we're in  
but not in looks like how the Command Center was described in Red 2 Blue.”

“The Command Center?!” Buff asked in surprise, “You mean the place that floating head guy lived?  
What was his name again?”

A loud humming noise coming from the energy tube caught the group's attention. Looking up at it, the  
five saw a giant, bald, floating head appear within it. The head was so large that it almost filled up the  
entire tube but what struck them the most was its benevolent but tired looking eyes.

“Zordon,” Jason said breathlessly.

“Greetings to whoever may be viewing this message,” Zordon began, his calm but loud voice silencing  
everyone else, “I hope it finds you living in a better time than the one in which I am recording it.”

He paused to let out a weary sigh. “As I speak, the Alliance of Evil is sweeping the planet for my  
location. It is only a matter of time until they find me and I no longer have means to escape when they  
do.”

“This must have been recorded around the time the Turbo Ranger powers got destroyed,” Rich said.

“I have managed to craft one last line of defense for the current crisis,” Zordon continued, “but if it  
does not hold, I will have no choice but to try and unleash the Z-Wave.”

“That's what saved the universe in the end,” Rich said.

“He sacrificed everything that he was,” Val added, “Shattering his energy tube so that his raw life force  
would purify or disintegrate every last member of the Alliance.”

“But even that,” Zordon said, his expression growing even sadder, “will ultimately be a temporary  
measure. The mass removal of so much evil energy, as well as my own, will severely damage the  
Morphing Grid, rendering it and all connected to it powerless. It will naturally mend itself whole in  
time, but it could be only a few years or many centuries before it begins to do so.”

“So the giant head blew up all the good and evil powers because evil was about to win,” Buff  
commented, “What's that got to do with us and the bird guys?”

“I think he's getting to that,” Jason replied.

“That mending will not only allow the slow return of the forces of good, but of the forces of evil as  
well,” Zordon said, “and among them will be a villain who will attempt to ensure the powers of  
darkness become the dominant force of this new Morphing Grid. Corrupting it as it rebuilds to  
transform it into the Dark Grid.”

“I know Zordon was supposed to be this source of great wisdom,” Rich said, “but how does he know  
that's happening now since he's... y'know... not really here for it?”

“Probably some similar... reset... happened a long time ago. Maybe even before his time,” Val replied  
before she smiled faintly, “Or it may be as my father used to say. Don't question how the floating head  
sage knows things. Sometimes he just does.”

“Were I to simply do nothing beyond winning the immediate battle,” Zordon continued, “I would be  
selfishly dooming the future for the sake of the present. I cannot... I will not... be so irresponsible to  
the ones who have yet to be born. With that in mind, I shall ensure the survival of my final creations.  
The Z Archives, a collection of all my knowledge gathered over the centuries. Delta-3, built in the  
image of my dearest friend and programed with the functions necessary to carry out this mission. And  
the Nanomorph machines I will place in the space dumpster that I still have enough time to jettison to  
safety along with this message.”

Zordon's head tilted down slightly and all five of the group were left with the impression he was staring  
directly at them. “These Nanomorph machines,” he proclaimed, “will create the final team of Power  
Rangers I will ever design. Now look down at yourselves.”

Doing as requested, the five teenagers gasped as they saw that each of them now had something  
wrapped around their waists. The objects were five identical looking belts that had a bulky, ovular  
device in place of the buckle. The device was a smooth, silver color with a visible slot at the top and a  
circular white jewel in the center on the front. Etched onto the jewel were five, square-shaped  
lightning bolts aimed at the center where their tips met, giving them a pinwheel appearance.

“These are your Morph In Belts,” Zordon explained, “They are now a part of you and will use your  
compatibility to the Morphing Grid to allow you to morph into your Ranger forms when combined with  
the Power Chips I will now place in your hands.”

Holding out their right hands, the group watched as a different, crystalline square appeared on each of  
their palms.

“There have been five versions of the Power Rangers before you,” Zordon continued, “each having  
drawn from a different facet of the Morphing Grid. Each creating a new link to it that can be tethered  
to all of you. While you will individually resonate more closely with one aspect over the others, your  
powers will ultimately be an amalgamation of them all.”

Buff looked over his yellow colored Chip that had the image of a roaring Allosaurus head on it while  
Rich poked at his black Chip that had a five-sided, elongated chevron at its center.

Val held her pink Chip up to the light to examine the oval shape on it while Amber turned her blue  
Chip over so that she could look at it from both sides. She tried to figure out if the pair of angular  
rectangles with three smaller circles inside of it that was drawn upon the Chip resembled LED  
headlights as much as she thought it did.

Jason looked down at the red colored Power Chip in his hand, wondering why the image on it was  
the relatively simple design of a stylized tablet computer.

The tired look in Zordon's eyes fully spread to the rest of his head language. “If this message is being  
viewed. If these powers are needed. Then it means that I am gone and, even if the current evil has  
been vanquished, I have endangered the well-being of those to come in this universe. It is my hope that  
this final gift I have to give will help heal the damage I have caused and allow you to protect your  
world from those who would seek to only consume and corrupt everything for their own selfish gains.”

One of the panels began to beep frantically and Zordon regarded it for a moment. “It seems I must end  
my message here. I wish you luck, Rangers. While I am sad that I shall never personally know you, I  
have faith that if you have been chosen then you have the strength, wisdom, skill, and bravery to be the  
heroes your world will need.”

A warm gentle smile that only partially banished the sorrow in his eyes spread across his giant face.  
“And as your powers will be five elements united as one to build a complete whole, I know in my heart  
that you five Rangers can work as one for the same end. Whoever you may be, may the Power protect  
you... now and forever.”

//

“-- you?!”

Jason blinked as the vision unceremoniously snapped out of existence and he realized Sarah had only  
just finished the sentence she had been saying before the message had begun. He looked around at the  
others to see they were equally disoriented but quickly recovering and each had their Morph In Belt on  
with their Power Chips in hand. He saw the Tenga hesitating, confused by the show of light and,  
behind them, Amber standing up with her Belt and Chip ready.

“Jason?” Sarah asked, “Tell me what just happened and why you all have those new fashion  
accessories.”

“We'll give you the exposition dump later, Muscle Head,” Buff said, “Right now, we got some business  
to get to.”

“What?” Sarah asked.

“Thank you for the help earlier,” Val said, “but I think this time you're the one who needs to get behind  
us.”

What?!” Sarah asked.

“Can I say it?” Rich asked, visibly shaking with excitement, “Pleeeeaaaase?”

“WHAT?!” Sarah asked.

“Like Buff said, we'll explain later,” Jason said, a look of grim determination coming to his face as he  
stared down the still uncertain Tenga. “but right now... IT'S MORPH IN TIME!”

As one the five took their Power Chips and slammed them down into the open slot at the top of their  
Morph In Belts. Rich's was the first to activate, the jewel in the center turning black in color as a voice  
from within the device proclaimed, “ZEO RANGER POWER!”

Val was next, her Morph In Belt's jewel turning pink. “NINJA RANGER POWER!”

Amber's jewel turned blue. “TURBO RANGER POWER!”

Buff's jewel became a yellow color. “MIGHTY MORPHING RANGER POWER!”

As Jason's jewel turned red, he noticed the voice from the device sounded like Zordon's. Perhaps, he  
thought, it was one last way the old alien had wanted to let them known he was with them. “SPACE  
RANGER POWER!”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaat?” Sarah asked, her nerves momentarily frayed as she tried to comprehend the change  
in the appearance of her friends and brother who had looked normal one second and the next, they were  
completely different.

All five of them wore full-body suits that were each the same color as the glowing gems on their  
Morph In Belts. They each had the same design of a large white diamond that filled the front of the  
torso. In the middle of the diamond was a line of five small squares that, from left to right, were blue,  
pink, red, yellow, and black. Around the neck area was a thick, square-shaped black band with a thin  
yellow lining on the inside, with the rest of the material going inwards being white up to the point  
where the suit connected with their helmets.

The gloves they wore over their hands had thick black bands covering the wrist area which were  
framed on the top and bottom by gold rings that were etched with a design that somehow combined the  
look of ancient writing with computer circuitry.

Their boots were white with black soles and had a thin black line going all the way down the front and  
back that made them look like pieces of car paneling put together. At the tops were more gold bands  
with the same markings as the ones on their gloves.

Amber and Val's suits had the addition of a skirt that was the same color as the majority of the body suit  
with the same black, panel-like lines their boots had running down them. The only other variations  
were Val having a katana strapped to her back while the rest had different sidearms in holsters on their  
right hips, and the individualized helmets each of them wore.

Rich's helmet was pure black with the molded outline of a scowling mouth on its lower half. A five-sided,  
elongated chevron shaped, shaded visor with a white outline took up most of the front of the face mask.

Val's pink helmet resembled the smooth shape of a ninja mask and cowl, with a golden strip evoking the  
look of a headband over the top of the shaded visor that covered her eyes. In the center of the strip was an  
indentation in the shape of an oval.

Amber's blue helmet had a silver mouthpiece with a scowling mouth, a black mirrored top, small  
chrome hubcap-like designs on the sides, and a wide, triangular, shaded visor over her eyes. The visor  
was surrounded with chrome that resembled a car's bumper guard with LED-like headlights where  
eyebrows would be, and a smaller pair of circular headlights at the center.

Buff's yellow helmet had the same kind of silver mouth design as Amber's but his shaded visor was  
outlined with a white strip that had black triangles drawn on it to resemble teeth. It gave the upper part  
of his helmet the appearance of a roaring mouth, which was further enhanced by the small, black,  
dinosaur shaped eyes near the top on each side.

Jason's red helmet was mostly taken up by an angular, wide visor surrounded by a white outline. Over  
the mouth area was a small, smooth, silver plate and on the top of his head was a black display that  
momentarily glowed with the green image of a stylized tablet computer.

Sarah began to open her mouth to ask another question but was cut off as Amber suddenly jumped high  
into the air, flipping over where the still confused Tenga watched to land next to her and the rest of the  
transformed teenagers. “Prodigious,” Amber gasped, “I feel so powerful.”

“They call 'em POWER Rangers for a reason!” Rich quipped.

“New Power Rangers?!” one of the Tenga squawked, the monsters all taking several steps back, “It  
can't be!”

Jason pointed at the Tenga as he shouted, “Looks like it is! C'mon guys! We've got some feathers to  
pluck!”

Sarah backed away from the new team of Power Rangers. “You better mean it when you say you'll  
explain later,” she warned.

Jason nodded, letting his sister get back a little more before he and the others jumped towards the  
Tenga. The battle was now about to truly begin.

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Chapter 2: Dawn of the Dumpster (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new Rangers engage in their first battle while an evil force begins to take action as well.

Jason, now the Red Ranger, let out a battle cry as he hurtled through the air. He lashed out with a  
flying punch that his one of the Tenga square on the beak, causing the bird-monster to crumple to its  
knees. Jason landed and struck a second Tenga with a roundhouse kick to the chest that caused it to  
flip over and land on its stomach. A third Tenga tried to jump him from behind but Jason turned on his  
heels and hit it with a forward punch so powerful that the monster flew backwards through the air,  
flailing its arms and legs helplessly until it collided with the chain link fence that separated the parking  
lot from the street.

“Man,” the Red Ranger marveled as he momentarily paused to stare at his own fist, “ This is some  
serious strength.”

Val, now the Pink Ranger, raced forwards so quickly that she was only perceptible as a pink blur. She  
streaked past one of the Tenga, the monster doubling over from an unseen blow. She turned around  
and raced back just as swiftly to strike a second Tenga before making one more high speed u-turn and  
hitting a third one.

Coming to a stop, Val watched with her arms folded over her chest as the three Tenga staggered for a  
second before simultaneously collapsing. “It's just like how mom and dad said it was for them,” she  
muttered to herself as she struggled to suppress how much her body was shaking in excitement.

“I'm a Power Ran-geeer,” Rich, now the Black Ranger, sang as two Tenga flew towards him.

“I'm a Power Ran-geeer,” Rich chirped again as he went into a handstand, spread his legs, and spun  
around once, hitting the two dive bombing bird-monsters with his feet.

“I'm a Power Ranger!” Rich belted out as he flipped back to a standing position and ran to where the  
Tenga has crashed next to each other.

“A Zeo!” the Black Ranger exclaimed as he dropped onto his back to deliver a pair of elbow drops to  
the spines of the downed monsters, “Power Ran-ger-eeeeer!”

Buff, now the Yellow Ranger, roared as he lowered his head and charged, slamming his shoulder into  
two more of the Tenga. He wrapped his arms around their waists and, without breaking stride, began  
to bodily carry them across the parking lot.

“Put us down!” one of the Tenga shrieked as it and its partner ineffectively slapped and clawed at  
Buff''s back.

Under his helmet, Buff smirked as he replied, “Okay!”

He let the Tenga go as he skidded to a halt, the two monsters flying backwards before they crashed into  
and then through the large glass window at the front of the Cluck Hut. While glad that the rest of the  
staff and customers had cleared out at some point, Buff still took in a hiss of air between clenched  
teeth. “Hope their insurance covers that,” the Yellow Ranger whispered as he placed his hands over the   
mouth area of his mask.

Amber, now the Blue Ranger, caught the arm of a Tenga that tried to hit her with an overhead chop and  
she twisted its wrist hard enough that it dropped to its knees in pain. “This augmentation of our  
physical abilities is phenomenal,” she commented before knocking away a second Tenga with a  
backhanded blow from her free arm.

She pulled the first one back to its feet, noticed she was now eye-to-eye with the creature when she had  
only come up to their chests before, and grabbed its arm with both hands before tossing it on its back  
with an over the shoulder throw. “It's even given me a notable increase in my height!

Delta picked up the lid for the space dumpster, sealing the container up again as he watched the battle.   
“It worked!” he cheered, “And the jolt of energy to the Grid was enough to--”

Sarah placed her hand down firmly on Delta's shoulder. “Enough. To. WHAT?!”

Slowly turning his head toward Sarah, Delta audibly gulped despite not having a throat in need of  
wetting. “P-Please don't hurt me,” he whimpered.

“I don't intend to,” Sarah replied, “but that is my brother and my friends fighting over there. THEY  
said they'd explain later but YOU look like you can explain NOW!”

“Oh my my my my!” Delta exclaimed, “I'm not sure that's a good ide--”

The two of them turned to look as a Tenga crash landed back first on the ground behind them. Sarah  
quickly turned to stand in front of the smaller Delta-3 protectively as the Tenga started to rise. The  
robot tilted his head curiously at her as she did so, visibly confused by her behavior.

“Sorry!” the Blue Ranger called out as she raced over, knocking the Tenga back towards the battlefield  
with a double palm thrust, “Still adjusting to my enhanced physique!”

As Amber ran off once more, Delta-3 waited for Sarah to turn back towards him again before saying,  
“The short version is that, now that they're Rangers, other systems are coming online that I can use to  
assist them. But I need to be uninterrupted to boot them up!”

Sarah nodded, even though she was surprised at Delta's sudden change in attitude, “Assisting sounds  
good! Let's get further back!”

“Agreed!”

The Yellow Ranger knocked down one of the Tengas he was fighting with a right cross before looking  
down and noticing the holstered weapon on his hip. Pulling the weapon out, he observed it was a long,  
thick, red and white handle that was tipped with a small blade that popped out when he pulled the  
trigger. The second Tenga he was fighting moved in to attack and the Yellow Ranger lashed out with  
his weapon in turn, sparks flying from where it slashed the monster across the chest and knocking it  
down. Noticing something about the weapon's construction, he turned the upper half of it on a hinge  
and it snapped into a new configuration.

“Check it out guys!” Buff called out, “My blade turns into a blaster!”

Drawing the sword from her back, the Pink Ranger slashed the Tenga in front of her twice before  
turning to the left to strike the second and third Tenga near her with a sweeping blow. She placed the  
sword back in its scabbard but something about how it clicked back in caught her attention and she  
pulled the whole thing off her back as a single unit. Noticing a hinge where the two came together, she  
gasped as part of the sword's hilt turned into a trigger and the bottom of the scabbard popped off to  
reveal a muzzle.

“My SWORD becomes a blaster!” Val called out too.

The Black Ranger pulled two weapons, one which looked like something halfway between a sword and  
a baton and the other being a very tiny blaster, out of his own holster. He shot the Tenga on his left  
with the small blaster, the yellow beam exploding against the Tenga's torso and knocking it head over  
heels. He then slashed the Tenga on his right with the sword baton, knocking it away before he flipped  
the top of the blaster open, creating a slot for him to slide the sword in where it locked into place with  
a soft click.

“My sword-baton COMBINES with my blaster!” Rich called out as well.

The Blue Ranger drew her own hip-mounted weapon, a cherry-red colored blaster with silver and black  
rimmed wheel-like turbines on the sides and a black, windshield-like design on top. She jumped  
forward, doing a cartwheel in mid-air and firing off two quick shots at the two Tenga attacking her,  
knocking them to the ground.

“My blaster is cast in the image of... an automobile?” Amber started to call out before faltering in  
confusion.

The Red Ranger drew his blue-and-silver, triangular shaped blaster and pulled the trigger, a solid beam  
of energy scything across the bodies of the three Tenga he was fighting. A small explosion erupted on  
each of their chests before they fell over and the Red Ranger looked at his weapon in the aftermath.

“My blaster... works,” Jason called out simply before shrugging.

The twelve dazed and battered Tenga had regrouped, standing together as they weakly but defiantly  
glared at the Power Rangers before them. In response, the five Rangers regrouped as well and stood in  
a line with Jason in the center, Amber and Rich on his left, and Val and Buff on his right.

“Okay guys!” Jason shouted as he and the others took aim at the Tenga with their weapons  
simultaneously, “Ready!”

Energy began gathering at the ends of the barrels of each Ranger's blaster, the center of Amber's  
snapping open to reveal an inner turbine that began to spin and gather even more power.

“Aim!”

The five braced their feet as the air around them crackled with the gathering force, the flock of Tenga  
seeing what they were doing and running towards them in a final, desperate charge.

“FIRE!”

Five beams of golden colored light shot out of the barrels the Power Rangers' weapons as they pulled  
the triggers as one. The beams were drawn to each other as if they were magnetized and formed a  
singular, more powerful beam that streaked towards the group of bird monsters rushing towards them.   
At the last second, the Tenga in the lead realized the danger and took to the sky as the rest were hit  
with the powerful wave of energy all at once.

The eleven that were struck by the blast flailed around as sparks of energy crackled up and down their  
bodies before they all slowly toppled over. Once they had all fallen, they began to explode in a chain  
reaction of unleashed power which culminated in a final, large fireball that flared high into the sky.

“A-Are we victorious?” The Blue Ranger asked as she and the others lowered their weapons.

“Not just yet,” The Pink Ranger replied as the sole surviving Tenga landed several feet behind them.

The team turned to face the Tenga and Val added, “Guess we weren't the ones getting hurt after all.”

“Curse you, Power Rangers!” the Tenga hissed, “I don't know how but you're gonna pay for this!”

“You couldn't beat us when you outnumbered us two-to-one,” the Yellow Ranger scoffed, “There's no  
way you could ever with by yourse-- does anyone else hear that noise?”

The noise Buff had heard, as had the other seven beings in the area, was a high-pitched whistling sound  
from above. Everyone looked up to see a dark, purple colored object cut through the clouds and hurtle  
through the air until it came to a sudden stop to hover over the Tenga. It was a shard of jagged,  
asymmetrically shaped, purple crystal the size of a human being. The shard pulsed with an ominous  
light, dark red veins throbbing beneath the surface.

“Okay, I know I've been saying this a lot in the last few minutes,” Sarah gasped as she stared at the  
crystal, a chill running down her spine as she did so, “but WHAT?!”

“Oh my my my my my MY,” Delta-3 yelped, visibly shivering, “I think that's a piece of the Oez  
Crystal! I don't know what it's going to do but it can't be good!”

The crystal loudly crackled before suddenly shattering into a fine cloud of dust that rained down onto  
the Tenga. The Power Rangers jumped back, something instinctively telling them that letting the dust  
fall upon them would be dangerous. That instinct was quickly proven correct as the Tenga, fully  
enveloped by the crystal dust, momentarily glowed with the same purple light before it started to  
swiftly grow in size.

The Rangers looked up as the Tenga became as large as the Cluck Hut, then just as quickly was the size  
of some of the near-by apartment buildings, and still kept growing larger until it towered thirty stories  
above them.

“Oh... yeah,” Rich said as he stared upwards, “This kinda thing happened with Ranger monsters a lot,  
didn't it?”

The Tenga roared in a mindless fury as it began raising its right foot upwards.

“We have to go!” Delta-3 yelled before placing his hands on Sarah's arm, “It's safer if you come with  
me!”

“Go?” Sarah asked, “Go where?!”

In response, Delta-3 simply said, “Activating teleportation system!”

Without a chance to say another word, Sarah found herself and Delta suddenly enveloped by a white,  
crackling light that lifted them up into the sky and carried them away at high speed.

The Tenga brought its foot down, the Rangers managing to dodge out of the way of the stomp. The  
ground trembled from the impact and there was the loud crunch of crushed metal and shattering glass  
as the blue car was flattened under the monster's heel.

“MY CAR!” Amber cried out in agonized alarm, before lowering her head in sorrow, “My car...”

Val looked over and saw her white car had just barely been missed... and that her traveling companion  
was nowhere to be seen. “Where's Delta?!”

“And Sarah?!” Jason added, the Red Ranger looking around frantically.

A crackle of static filled Jason's right ear before he and the others heard Sarah say over a radio that was  
built into their helmets, “It's okay guys! Delta teleported us to somewhere safer... I think.”

“Where?!”

“Deal with the big bird now,” Sarah snapped back, “And we'll all try to figure this stuff out later!”

“Hey!” the Yellow Ranger called out to Jason and Amber, “Can we try that big blast thing again?!”

“Right!” Jason shouted, snapping the Blue Ranger out of her stunned stupor, “Let's do it!”

“R-Right,” Amber replied shakily.

The five lined up once more, aiming their blasters upwards and unleashing their combined bolt of  
energy once again. The bolt proceeded to bounce off the giant Tenga's body and, in response, the  
Tenga opened its beak and breathed a torrent of purple colored force down towards them. Jumping out  
of the way, the shock wave of the explosion from where the bean hit the ground knocked them all head  
over heels and all five landed on their backs.

“Hey, Muscle Head,” Buff groaned as he sat up, “Think you and the tin can can get us out of here too?”

“We can't give up!” Rich cried as he hopped back to his feet, “This is where it really starts to get cool!”

He raised his hand to the sky, the Black Ranger striking a pose as he called out, “We need Super  
Awesome Zord power! NOW!”

He held the pose for several seconds, the others looking at him in confusion.

“Was worth a shot,” Rich finally sighed before lowering his hand.

“Delta's trying to get some computer stuff on the other side of the room running,” Sarah's voice  
interjected in their ears again, “So he's telling me that Valestera should use that other thing she  
borrowed from her dad's lab. It should work now that her Ranger powers are activate.”

“Borrowed...” the Pink Ranger muttered under her breath, “Sure. Let's go with that.”

“Whatever this other thing is,” Amber shouted as the giant Tenga turned away from them, “I suggest  
engaging it immediately!”

“Rangers... destroyed... other Tenga,” the monster boomed, a feral fury in its eyes, “DESTROY  
RANGERS CITY!”

The Tenga began flapping its wing arms, kicking up hurricane force wings that picked up vehicles,  
roadsigns and traffic lights and smashed them into the sides of several buildings. Firing another beam  
from its mouth, several buildings exploded into rubble, the remains joining the damaging projectiles  
being carried by the wind.

“Stand back, everyone!” Val snapped as she reached behind her back and pulled out a small, golden  
coin from out of nowhere, “I'm going to need some space for this!”

As the other four Rangers spread out, Val looked down at the coin and the snarling fox design on it  
before clenching her fist around it. Focusing her mental energies, she began to chant, “Powers of  
Water... Powers of Light...” 

The Pink Ranger then tossed the coin, now glowing with pink energy, up into the air.

“Powers untie! BATTLE BORG! POWER UP!”

There was another bright flash of light and the Tenga drew back as a robot of a similar size to itself  
appeared in front of it. The robot was humanoid in shape and mostly colored a bright shade of pink. It  
had silvery, rounded limbs and a slender torso with a golden belt-like design around its waist. In the  
center was the same oval shape that was on the top of Val's helmet.

The Battle Borg's head was cast in the design of a fox with sharp, triangular ears at the top and solid  
yellow eyes that flared to life as it took a battle stance identical to the one Val took below.

“I can feel it,” she shouted, a robotic, distorted version of her voice emanating from the Battle Borg,  
“We're united and ready to ruffle some feathers!”

The Tenga wordlessly roared and fired off another torrent of purple energy from its mouth. In response  
Val cartwheeled to the left twice, the Pink Battle Borg matching her movements and causing the blast  
to impact with the ground harmlessly.

The Battle Borg raced forward, closing the distance between it and the Tenga swiftly. Val grunted as  
she lashed out with three backhanded blows from her left arm before throwing a right cross and then  
three more backhands with her right arm. This caused the Battle Borg to hit the monster three times on  
the chest, once across the beak, and then three more times on the chest with its other arm. Val and the  
Battle Borg followed up with an open handed, upward thrust that jabbed the Tenga in the throat and  
knocked it down onto its back with a heavy crash.

“Hey Rich,” Jason asked the Black Ranger as he and the others watched the fight, “Any idea what's  
going on here?”

“As I understand it, Battle Borgs are Aquitian technology,” Rich replied excitedly, “ALEIN  
technology! Everything I've seen about them says they're psychically linked with the Ranger  
controlling them. It makes them faster and more agile than most kinds of Zords but--”

As if on cue, the Tenga quickly sat up and unexpectedly fired twin purple-colored beams from its eyes.   
Caught flatfooted, the projectiles exploded against the chest of the Pink Battle Borg and Val cried out  
in pain and both she and the robot were sent flying backwards.

Amber raced forwards, the Blue Ranger trying to catch the Pink Ranger before she hit the ground. The  
impact of their bodies colliding knocked Amber to the ground but she was still able to position herself  
under Val so that Val had a softer landing than the Battle Borg.

“-- Borg takes a hit, Ranger takes a hit,” Rich finished.

“What were you THINKING, dummy?!” Buff yelled as he and Jason moved to help Amber and Val up  
before he swiftly added, “You okay?”

Val slapped the Yellow Ranger's hand away as she rolled off of Amber and sprang back to her feet. As  
the Battle Borg did the same Val snarled, “I told you all to stay back!”

“We can't combat that thing as you can,” Amber responded as she let Jason help her up, “but we can  
ensure your chances for injury are lessened. If this is the only way we can assist you for now, why  
would we reject doing so?”

“I...” Val stammered, unable to think of a response.

“You girls can bond later!” Buff said as he pointed upwards, “I think feather-face is up to something!”

The giant Tenga regained its footing and jumped into the air, taking flight as it circled the Battle Borg  
high in the sky. Energy began gathering at both its mouth and eyes before it dipped down to start  
firing on the robot from both sources.

Val and the Pink Battle Borg dove forward, the buildings and street around the machine crumbling  
from the Tenga's assault. Looking up, Val calculated the distance between Borg and bird before  
growling under her breath, “The Battle Borg can't jump that high.”

The Tenga let out a snarling laugh as it dipped in the air before before firing yet again, the Pink Battle  
Borg commando rolling out of the way as the area around it was shredded by the projectile assault.

Watching the exchange, the Red Ranger thought back to his own experience with a flying Tenga. “It  
looks like they lose altitude when they try to focus on something other than flying,” he called out, “I  
think you can get him when he's charging up to zap you!”

“Are you NUTS, Jas?!” the Yellow Ranger gasped in disbelief, “She's got what? Two or three seconds  
to hit it before she gets blasted to pieces?!”

Under her helmet, Val smirked grimly to herself as she replied, “That should be just about enough.”

The Pink Ranger raised her right arm straight up to the sky as the Battle Borg did the same and she  
called out, “Lightning Hand Command! NOW!”

A blade of blue-tinted white energy suddenly gathered around the Pink Battle Borg's raised arm and  
both it and Val crouched in preparation.

“FINISH YOOOOOUUUU!” the Tenga roared as it circled around to attack once again.

The second it began to descend, Val leaped as high as she could with her arm still raised over her head.   
The Pink Battle Borg did the same and the Tenga, caught off-guard by suddenly being face-to-face  
with the robot, lost focus and the energy faded from its eyes and mouth.

With a mighty battle cry of “SEEE YAAAAH!” the Pink Ranger chopped downwards in a diagonal  
motion. The Battle Borg did the same and hit the Tenga in mid-air, the energy from its arm being  
forcefully injected into the bird-monster's body at the point of impact.

Val landed from her jump in a crouch, her right arm still at the end of its chopping motion. A few  
seconds later, the Battle Borg landed in the same pose a few yards behind her. Several yards further  
out from there the Tenga, its body crackling with the blue-ish white energies forced into it, crashed to  
the ground before exploding in a powerful but short lived fireball that left only a faint outline of ash  
behind.

The other Rangers cheered as they ran over to Val. When she stood back up, the Battle Borg reverted  
to the small coin in another flash of light before returning to her hand. “Dad'll be glad to know it  
works at least,” she muttered under her breath.

“Great job,” Jason said, giving Val a thumbs-up, “You saved the city!”

“Uh...” Val replied as she squirmed, “Thanks for the tip, I guess.”

“That wasn't TOO bad,” Buff said, “But maybe you should have called the giant robot out to step on  
those guys FIRST, Pinkie.”

“What did you just call--” Val started to ask before Rich grabbed her left arm and Amber grabbed her  
right arm.

“Could you call it back out?!” Rich asked, bouncing up and down like an excited child, “Can I sit in its  
hand?! I've always wanted to sit in a Zord's hand!”

“That was impeccably prodigious!” Amber all but squealed, “I'm glad you're uninjured and thank you  
for avenging my car!”

As Val tried to figure out who to address first, Jason heard Sarah's voice inside of his helmet again.

“Delta says he's going to try bringing you guys to us. Stand by to teleport.”

“What?” Jason asked.

All five Rangers were suddenly enveloped by crackling energy that was the same color as their Rangers   
forms before they were all lifted into the sky and carried away to somewhere else. Two seconds later, a  
teleportation field surrounded the white car and carried it away as well.

//

The moon was far more cluttered than the last time humanity had stepped upon it many decades ago.

When the Machine Empire had first invaded the solar system, they had transformed much of the sandy  
surface into factories and hangers to produce and store their numerous soldiers and weapons. Massive,  
gear shaped ships and smaller combat machines known as Quadrafighters had flown overhead both to  
defend the facilities below and as a show of force to whoever may have been gazing upon them.

After the fall of the House of Gadgetry, the factories had fallen silent. The hangers had grown  
disordered with neglected clutter, and many of the ships both large and small had fallen from the sky to  
become nothing more than metallic junk across the landscape.

Sitting in the center of the fallen and abandoned ruins, a noticeable circle of space cleared away from it,  
was a castle. The building was dark and angular but highlighted with bright blue neon lights. Over the  
main doorway, where an old mobile home was parked nearby, there was an even brighter neon sign  
that read “RITA'S”.

In the center of the castle was a large, slate gray tower that loomed over the rest of the structure.   
Mostly unadorned, the tower had a singular opening near the top. The opening was part of a balcony  
situated in such a way that it faced the near-by planet Earth as often as possible.

Standing on the balcony, looking at the planet through a dusty telescope that let him see the entire  
battle between the new Power Rangers and the Tenga, was an alien. The alien's body was dark gray  
with rows of eyes traveling down the sides of his arms, legs and sides that were surrounded by blue  
eyelids. On his waist there was a silver belt with a black buckle that had a blue barcode design in the  
center and a holster for a square-shaped blaster on his hip. The bars towards the middle of the design  
were slightly taller to take on the appearance of stylized horns.

The alien's chest was covered by square-shaped, black, grilled armor with blue trim. The upper part of  
his head was covered by a blue visor that had long, jagged black horns that matched the design on his  
belt coming out of the front and his silver, lip-less mouth and teeth gave him the appearance of having  
a permanent snarl.

“Uh oh,” the alien muttered to himself, “that can't be good.”

“Vhat have you got zere, Dienay?” a heavily accented voice called out from the doorway across the  
large, mostly empty chamber.

Jumping in surprise, Dienay turned around before replying, “Oh hey! Check this out, Doctor  
Brainborg! It's Rita's old spyglass! And it still works!”

Doctor Brainborg was a humanoid robot, colored black with yellow fingers, downward sloping, yellow  
lightning bolts at his hips, and yellow highlights around his wedge-shaped abs. Black, molded armor  
held in place with three large bolts on each side was on his chest and he had triangular shoulder pads  
that slopped upwards. Around his waist was a belt that had a red buckle which contained a silver star  
and a holster on the side for a large blaster of his own.

His head had a long, red slit at the mouth area that looked like an evil smile, with another pair of   
yellow lightning bolt designs above it that led up to a pair of round, red eyes. Above the eyes, the rest  
of his cranium was see-through, displaying a human-like brain floating in amniotic fluid that had three  
red electric wires sticking out of each side.

“Zen even if it is only a souvenir,” Brainborg said as he walked fully into the chamber, pausing to look  
over at the back of the stone throne facing away from him with a silver Z on its back, “Your search has  
been more fruitful zan mine.”

Snarling in frustration, Brainborg added, “No VONDER Zedd und Rita never bozered attacking again  
once zey had driven ze Machine Empire off! If Dark Specter hadn't pulled zem into ze Alliance, it  
vould have taken zem anozer twenty years to get zeir own house in order clearing away zis useless  
junk! Und zat's twenty years from NOW!”

“Didn't the Machine Empire have all that stuff out there up and running the day after they arrived?”  
Dienay asked pointing, “How'd they do it?”

“It vould seem ze secrets of zeir mass mechanization vere lost vith ze deletion of ze hard drives of King  
Mondo und his brood,” Doctor Brainborg spat, “Arrogant fools never preserved ze information in any  
ozer format.”

“Disappointing,” a third voice interjected from the doorway, “but not unexpected.”

“Bro!” Dienay shouted cheerfully.

“Arenay,” Brainborg acknowledged with a curt nod, “Und how has your search faired?”

The alien known as Arenay was far more bizarre looking than his brother. His body was mostly pink,  
save for a stripe of white down the middle of his torso that gave him the appearance of wearing a coat.   
That appearance was further enhanced by the set of spinal column-like chains that hung down from his  
silver belt which had a fanged mouth design with a red jewel in it for its belt buckle. His black feet  
had three spines each on them and his black gloved hands led up to a series of black arm bands that  
went up his forearms.

Across his chest was a series of three warped, diagonal, silver hoops and his face had the same  
snarling, silver mouth as Dienay but his jagged horns covered his entire face, even cutting through his  
dark green, bug-like eyes and coming out of the green and pink horns that sprouted from the side of his  
head.

“Well enough,” he said as he held up a small ball of green wax in his left hand, “I managed to find what  
I was looking for. Finster's clay and Monster-Matic may be worthless to us, but his reluctance to  
throw anything away proved a boon.”

“Zen it seems I am ze only one not to find somezing useful today,” Brainborg huffed.

Seeing Brainborg's irritation, Dienay said, “Don't feel so bad, Doc. You cleaned up pretty good when  
we found Divatox's and Mama D's space subs. And at Master Vile's place too!”

“True,” Brainborg replied, “Stumbling upon zat clutch of Tenga eggs VAS a lucky find.”

Dienay squirmed but, before he could say anything, a fourth figure entered the room and added,  
“They've been useful bloodhounds, if nothing else.”

The figure in question could have easily been mistaken as a petite human woman from Earth even with  
her deep blue colored hair that was in a short bob cut. Her blue, high-heeled boots that had black,  
jagged symbols upon them clicked on the floor as she approached the others. Most of her attire  
resembled a white “sailor suit” school uniform with no sleeves, a blue mini-skirt, and elbow-length  
white gloves that ended in blue bands. A bow made of black lace was attached to the small of her back  
and an even larger, purple bow in the shape of a moth covered her chest that was attached to a wide,  
dark blue collar that had the same symbols on it as her boots.

“Saffear,” Arenay said, “I thought you were still on your... fishing expedition.”

“I am,” Saffear replied, “The Tengas tracked her to the planet out there and I know for a fact her  
vehicle is almost out of power. She's out of options to escape and, as we speak, our little birdies  
should be reeling her in... and her little blinking bucket of bolts too!”

“Yeah... about that,” Dienay nervously cut in, “I wouldn't wait up for those guys if I was you.”

The other three in the room turned to look at him as Aranay asked, “What?”

“I was checking out the spyglass,” Dienay started to explain, “and I saw they kinda got... uh...  
exploded.”

“What?!” Saffear snapped.

Dienay squirmed again. “By... uhh... Power Rangers.”

“VAAAAAAAAAAT?!” Doctor Brainborg yelled.

“And why, exactly, did you not think to tell us that first, little brother?” Arenay asked flatly.

“I was gonna!” Dienay shouted defensively, “But I thought one of you guys was handling it when I saw  
that piece of the Oez Crystal got sent down!”

“That, my foolish friend, was MY doing.”

All four of them turned in surprise towards the throne, which briefly rumbled before shaking off two  
-and-a-half decades of dust as it began to turn around.

Sitting in the chair was a humanoid figure in studded, red, leathery armor with metal bracers on his  
forearms and shoulders. Around his neck was wrapped a pair of metal pipes that resembled both an oil  
pipeline and the coils of a snake. On his chest was a teal colored, stylized design of a cobra with its  
hood extended. His red helmet had a large, teal visor that took up the majority of the front, with a pair  
of faint, yellow eyes behind it and what looked like a horn-like smokestack coming out of the  
forehead.

He leaned to the side as he sat upon the throne, resting his chin on his fist as he lightly tapped his foot  
against the ground. “This thing certainly helps with making a dramatic entrance, doesn't it?” he asked,  
his raspy voice sounding as if it was coming out of a low quality speaker.

“Commander Darc!” Saffear exclaimed in surprise as she and the others moved to kneel before the  
throne, “How long have you--”

Commander Darc casually raised his hand to cut her off. “Long enough, my dear. It seems that  
Aquitian and Zordon's lost toy found allies far quicker than anyone could have expected them to.”

Bowing her head, Saffear growled in frustration. “They were barely there an hour! This... complicates  
things.”

“It IS disappointing,” Darc agreed with a nod as he shifted around so he was leaning back on the chair,  
“but not unexpected. We'll need to make preparations to deal with them, instead of moving directly  
onto the next phase of the Master Plan.”

“Why's that, boss?” Dienay asked, “Weren't we just gonna drop the Oaz Crystal on that planet out  
there?”

Darc lazily waved his left hand towards Doctor Brainborg, who looked over at Dienay. “Pover Rangers  
are intrinsically tied to ze Morphing Grid. Zeir very existence vill create energies zat vill be a natural  
barrier to ze effects of ze Oez Crystal.”

“And it is likely that connection will work to speed up the repair process for the Grid as well,” Saffear  
added, “Like stitches holding a wound closed.”

“I get it!” Dienay exclaimed, “Pop the Rangers, pop the stitches!”

“And let the infection in,” Arenay hissed.

“Exactly,” Commander Darc said, “But first things first. It sounds like you've found anything left that's  
worth finding. Return to the ship at once.”

“Yes, Commander,” the other four said before standing up and teleporting away, Dienay taking a  
moment to grab the telescope so it came with him.

Hopping out of the throne once he was alone, Commander Darc took a moment to straighten out his  
back as he grumbled, “How did he SIT in this thing all day?”

Turning back to face the throne, Darc pulled a small shard of the Oez Crystal out of a pouch on his belt.   
“I wonder how you would feel, Zedd,” he said, “to know that this palace, this one small space, is the  
only remnant of the empire you once ruled for thousands of years.”

He dropped the crystal shard on the seat of the throne. “And now it will vanish, along with the final  
remains of the Machine Empire!”

The crystal shard began to glow and expand, quickly covering the throne like fungus over a stone.   
Darc took several steps back, chuckling to himself as he took in the sight. “You, Rita, Master Vile,  
Divatox, Dark Specter, and even Astronima,” he all but spat, “You had your chances. Now it's finally  
MY time! With the power of the Oez Crystal, I shall take my place as the one true Master of  
Darkness!”

With that, he teleported away as well and left the crystal to its work.

The crystalline mass began spreading further and faster, engulfing the entire throne and the floor  
surrounding it in seconds. What the crystal touched, it turned into more of itself, the gigantic fan that  
made up the wall behind the throne being transformed next. The entire room swiftly followed with no  
sign of the crystal slowing down.

From the outside, the change was sudden and rapid as the crystal raced down the length of Zedd's tower  
before turning Rita's castle into asymmetrical pillars of purple and red-veined rock. Spreading out  
even further, the Machine Empire's fallen ships and darkened factories were next. The growth only  
stopped once everything had been absorbed and converted down to the last bolt and brick.

What had once been the graveyard of three different legacies of evil was now a singular, hive-like mass  
of crystal that throbbed and crackled with untapped power. The shadow of a large spaceship, dotted  
with large shards along its hull and dwarfed by the size of the Oez Crystal beneath it, passed by  
overhead before synchronizing its orbit with the mass.

From the bridge of the ship, Commander Darc looked down and began laughing in anticipation of the  
conquest to come.

//

Jason stumbled as the sensation of high-speed flight abruptly ended and the red light surrounding him  
faded. He reached up to remove his helmet, which came off easily with a faint click, and tucked it  
under his arm as he gasped for breath.

“Anyone else feel like their stomach is still back in the parking lot?” Buff grunted, similarly removing  
his helmet before bringing his free hand up to his mouth as his cheeks momentarily puffed out.

“Teleportation is jarring the first few times,” Val said as she tried to hide the fact her fingers were  
trembling as she pulled off her helmet, “You get used to it.”

“That was AWESO--” Rich began to yell before he took a single step forward and then collapsed onto  
his back.

He quickly raised his arms, his helmet in his left hand as he waved with his right. “I'm okay!”

Amber slowly reached up and took off her own helmet as well. She audibly gasped as a squirming  
sensation ran through her body and she realized she was back to her normal height. At the same time,  
she also noticed that she had not felt her glasses on her face the whole time she had been transformed  
but now she could feel their weight once more. At the concerned looks of the others she smiled  
weakly and said, “I'm feeling nominal. It seems my more intensive transformation is dependent on my  
suit's seal remaining intact.”

“Good to know,” Buff said, “But you know what would be even better to learn?”

He waved his free arm aimlessly, his voice echoing along the metallic walls as he screamed, “WHERE  
ARE WE?!”

Looking around to take stock of the situation, the Rangers noticed they were standing in a small,  
square, empty room. The lighting was dim, coming from old, flickering strips of light on the ceiling  
and the walls were heavily reenforced with metal plates. A dense fog swirled along the ground,  
obscuring their feet, but the metallic clanking noises that followed their footsteps made it clear the  
floor was similarly armor plated as well.

“That's a good question,” Jason said as he looked pointedly at Val, “You know more about this whole  
situation than us. Any ideas?”

“This has to be one of the tunnels under the old Command Center,” Val replied, “It's where Delta and I  
were trying to get to.”

“They didn't get destroyed when the Command Center blew up?!” Rich exclaimed as he sat up.

He paused for a moment before amending, “Either time it blew up?”

“Obviously not, moron,” Buff snapped, “Pinkie just SAID we're standing in them, didn't she?!”

“Would you stop CALLING me tha--” Val began to yell before a loud crash from the doorway in front  
of them cut her off.

Stepping out into the hallway, the group of five were surprised to see Val's white car sitting in the  
middle of it, blocking the path. “The Rad Bug!” she exclaimed happily, “He remembered to bring it  
with us!”

She then paused before amending, “Now how do I get it out of here?”

“The 'Rad Bug'?” Jason whispered to Rich incredulously.

“If it's what I think it is, it's the product of a different time, Jas,” Rich whispered back, “One we'll never  
fully understand.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Buff saw someone poke their head around the corner at the end of the  
hallway. “Muscle Head?” he called out as he turned towards them.

“Bufford,” Sarah called back.

“You okay, sis?” Jason asked as he looked for a way to get over or around the car.

“Relatively speaking?” Sarah replied, “I think so. But Delta made it sound like he needs you guys for  
one more thing before all of us can go home and freak out.”

“I second working towards having time to emotionally process the events of today,” Amber said before  
looking at the car with a frown that was half annoyed and half wistful, “Once we manage to  
circumvent this... traffic jam.”

//

After a few minutes of each Ranger scrambling over the vehicular blockage, Sarah led them down the  
hallway to a pair of double doors that were adorned with the same circle of lightning bolts symbol that  
was on their Morph-In Belts. She stood in front of the door for several seconds before she grunted in  
frustration, grabbed Jason by the arm, and pulled him closer to where she was standing. A soft beeping  
noise preceded the doors sliding open and as she let Jason go Sarah grumbled, “Sorry about that. The  
technology around here doesn't seem to like me too much.”

Stepping inside the chamber, the group found themselves in a cavernously large, disorganized room  
that was filled with a mixture of unused building materials, several shelves of different items along  
what was visible of the walls, and multiple piles of broken, burned junk. “What is this place?” Buff  
asked as he looked around, “The world's largest storage closet?”

“Whoa!” Rich exclaimed, rushing over to a cracked and scorch-marked crystal ball that came up to his  
waist. “Is this the original Viewing Globe?!”

He then pointed to a series of shattered, human-sized display cases in the corner by the door. “And  
those have gotta be what they kept the original costumes in after they got the Zeo Powers!”

Val watched Rich all but bounce towards one of the shelves and as he was admiring a blue-and-white  
colored shield that popped open to reveal a series of mirrors inside, she leaned over and whispered to  
Amber, “I've been meaning to ask. I thought the Power Rangers were supposed to keep their identities  
and technology secret. How does he know all this?”

Amber leaned closer to Val to whisper back, “I'll endeavor to acquire a copy of Red 2 Blue for you to  
peruse at the earliest convenience. A lot has occurred in the time period since their last battle.”

“Rangers!” Delta-3's voice called out from the center of the room as the robot flicked several switches  
on a podium that had a computer panel built into it, “The targeting module in this back-up system must  
have fallen out of alignment at some point while it was inactive these past twenty six years. My  
apologies for the misguided landing.”

“We all got here in one piece without turning inside out or ending up inside a wall,” Jason said, “So I'm  
sure you did your best. What do you need us for now?”

“And just so you know,” Buff added as he watched Rich fool around with a large silver box that was  
covered in different dials and had what looked like a TV antenna on top, “We're not cleaning up your  
closet.”

“This is NOT a closet,” Delta huffed defensively, “But cleaning it up IS part of the agenda.”

Picking up the space dumpster next to him, Delta walked over to the group with it and set the device  
down in front of them. “Please gather around,” he said, “There are more Nanomorph Machines in here  
beyond the ones that activated your powers and we're going to need to bring them online to begin  
repairing this facility.”

“And that requires all of us in some capacity?” Amber asked.

“Correct,” Delta-3 answered, “I need each of you to enter the code five-four-one, so that the machines  
inside can confirm your powers are all active and that the next step in preparations to deal with the  
coming crisis can start.”

Amber suddenly started tugging at her belt, her hands feeling along it as she twisted from side to side  
trying to look for something on it. “What are you doing?” Sarah asked, noting the smaller woman was  
moving closer to her at the same time.

“Attempting to discover if there is a mechanism for removing this device,” Amber replied, growing  
more visibly agitated at her inability to do so, “I was willing to assist in combat in an emergency but if  
this conflict is going to be a sustained one, it would be better if you had these powers, Sarah. Your  
martial arts prowess would be a much greater asset than what I could provide.”

“I... don't think it works like that,” Sarah said before looking over at Delta with a momentarily hopeful  
look, “Does it?”

“I'm afraid not,” Delta replied, “That Morph-In Belt and Power Chip could only ever work for you,  
Amber.”

Sarah grimaced but then smiled at Amber gently. “Besides, blue's not really my color.”

“Hey, Delta?” Jason asked, “After we let the Nanomorphs out, do we really NEED to stay and fight?”

“Not... technically,” Delta replied nervously.

“So we can still back out if we wanted to, right?”

“That's... correct,” Delta-3 answered hesitantly, “but oh my my! Please don't! Your world and the  
entire universe needs you all!”

The robot made audible sighing noise before adding, “But one of Zordon's most important rules that he  
coded into me is that being a Power Ranger is a duty that one undertakes willingly. If any of you truly  
do not wish to stay, I can send you home safely.”

“And there we are,” Jason said, “I'm gonna level with you guys. The powers are cool and all, but I  
don't know how I feel being drafted like this.”

He lifted his helmet, looking at his face as it reflected in the visor. “I don't know if we're even the ones  
who SHOULD be doing this or if we should walk away and maybe leave it to people who might be  
better equipped to handle alien invasion or a galactic spirit energy crisis.”

He looked up at the others as he tucked the helmet back under his arm. “I visit here a lot but I'm not  
really from Angel Grove, so I don't know as much about what the Power Rangers were all about as you  
would.”

Jason nodded at Rich, who was paying attention while also playing with a weapon that had twin  
nozzles and a blue triceratops emblem on the side that was mostly eaten away by dried foam that had  
leaked out. “Especially compared to some of you,” Jason added with a smile.

He raised his right forefinger for emphasis. “But there is one thing about the Power Rangers I know for  
sure. No matter how their roster or powers changed, they remained a team. So if we are going to do  
this, WE need to be a team. Which means we have to be willing to work together and respect each  
other no matter what choices we make.”

Using the same forefinger, Jason pointed down at the space dumpster. “So if you want to stay, step  
over here.”

He pointed to the double doors they had previously entered. “If you want to go, step over there. No  
shame, no judgment either way.”

“And you, Jas?” Buff asked.

Jason smirked ever so slightly as he replied, “I'll support the team.”

“Uhhh... you DO realize there's FOUR of us, right? What if we end up going half-and-ha--”

Buff yelled in surprise as he was cut off by Val shoving him out of the way so that she could walk  
towards the space dumpster. “I wouldn't have come to this planet if I didn't intend to be a Ranger,” she  
said, “I'm in.”

Steadying himself, Buff glared at Val but before he could say anything, Rich almost bowled him over  
from the other side as he raced forward shouting, “Being a Power Ranger! I am SO in!”

Once he had regained his footing a second time, Buff expanded his glare towards Rich. After a few  
moments, he sighed. “My old man tells a lot of stories about all the monsters he kept running into  
back in the day. If you'd hear him talk about it, you'd think he and his best friend personally met and  
ran away from every monster that ever attacked Angel Grove.”

He chuckled to himself before continuing with, “But the way he talked about the Power Rangers? How  
he respected them? How humbled he was by the fact they kept saving him despite being the same  
people he'd bullied all the time? Yeah, I kinda wanna see what that kind of respect feels like. I'm in  
too.”

Amber hesitated as Buff walked towards the dumpster. Her eyes darted between the others and the  
doorway as her lower lip trembled. She shuffled from foot-to-foot as the other four Rangers stared at  
her quietly, waiting for her decision.

She started to take a step forward.

“Wait,” Sarah growled as she gently but firmly put her hand on Amber's shoulder.

Looking up and over at the taller woman, Amber saw her glaring sharply at the group. “I wasn't hit  
with any of those fancy lights so maybe I don't get a say in all this,” Sarah said, “but don't feel like you  
have to do something you don't feel up to just because everyone else is doing it. It's crazy, it's  
dangerous, and if those bird guys are only the beginning, there's no shame in walking away before it  
gets worse.”

She paused, giving Jason a grim look. “And if you really want to go, just know you won't be leaving  
alone.”

Amber reached up to rest her free hand on top of Sarah's. “Thank you. I am appreciative of your  
support... but I was the one who initially opened the capsule and ensured we became much more  
deeply mired n this situation than we had been initially. I would still prefer if someone more worthy  
had these powers but, if they cannot be exchanged, it would be beyond irresponsible for me to  
disengage entirely.”

She removed Sarah's hand from her shoulder, giving her a momentary, grateful smile before walking  
forward. “But knowing my decision would be supported in either capacity assists in my desire to  
confirm it. I'm in.”

Jason smiled softly as he said, “Guess the team's decided then.”

“Hooray!” Delta-3 cheered, “Then please, line up and prepare to enter the code on the dumpster. You  
can go in almost any order except you, Jason. You need to go last.”

“Huh? Why?” Jason asked.

“It's because you're the Red Ranger,” Val and Rich said simultaneously, earning the latter a frustrated  
look from the former.

At Jason's confused look, Delta said, “A Power Ranger's color is determined by the energy that bonds  
with them. Those energies choose who they bond with based on traits within each Ranger. If the Red  
Energy has chosen you, it means you have traits that make you best for leadership. And, in cases like  
this, the leader goes last to give final approval.”

Jason winced before looking over at Sarah. “You CERTAIN these powers can't be transferred, Delta.”

“Not even if you had a spare magic sword from an extinct civilization that lived on a planet that was  
destroyed twenty-four years ago,” Delta stated.

“That's... an oddly specific example,” Jason commented.

Sarah scowled at Jason, wagging her finger at him as she said, “And you don't get to pull a stunt like  
the one you just pulled and then say you're not a leader.”

“You'd still be a better choice,” Jason countered, “What happens if I have to go back to Stone Canyon  
and this isn't over yet?!”

“In case you missed it, there's this thing we just did called 'teleportation',” Sarah snapped back, “Seems  
like you could get grabbed in a hurry if need be.”

“Still!” Jason exclaimed, “You're smarter than me, a better fighter than me and--”

“But you're the one that got picked,” Sarah sighed, “So all that doesn't matter.”

“It should,” Jason grumbled, “It always should.”

“Not this, Jason,” Sarah said, turning away from the group, “Not now.”

Val looked over at the other three humans curiously.

“It's none of your business, Pinkie,” Buff growled in a low voice.

“Let's just say it's a sibling thing,” Rich whispered to her.

Val nodded once, watching Jason struggle to find a response to Sarah's words.

“Were you hoping to acquire his position?” Amber whispered.

“Actually,” Val replied softly, “I was hoping for your color.”

“C'mon guys,” Jason said suddenly as he turned away from Sarah's back, “Let's get this thing open.”

“About time,” Val grumbled as she entered the code first.

“This is gonna be so cool,” Rich giggled excitedly as he entered the code next.

“Let's get this over with,” Buff said as he tapped the numbers on the pad, “Dad's probably left fifty  
texts on my phone by now.”

“Hello again,” Amber said to the dumpster as she entered the code, “What kind of molecular  
transmutation do you have for us this time?”

Standing back up, Amber turned around to face Jason. “May I confirm something before you finalize  
this process?” she asked.

Jason looked at her curiously before nodding.

“When Sarah said I would not depart alone, if I chose to do so,” Amber started to ask, pausing a  
moment to bite her lower lip nervously, “She was not speaking only for herself, was she?”

There was a short silence before Jason chuckled and replied, “I said I'll support the team. You're a  
member of that team. I'd be kind of a jerky leader if I left a member feeling all alone because they  
honestly chose what was best for them.”

Buff and Rich shook their heads as they laughed to themselves while Val tilted her head to the side as  
she looked to be reassessing Jason. Amber smiled warmly as she placed a hand on his shoulder and  
said, “Th-Then in my opinion, the Red Energy made a fine selection.”

As Amber stepped to the side, allowing Jason to reach the number pad, Sarah smiled to herself. It was  
a smile tinged with sadness, but a smile she kept on her face as she turned back towards the others to  
watch what happened next.

“Biometric and passcode data verified,” the computerized voice of the dumpster said once Jason had  
finished, “Beginning recovery and reconstruction procedures.”

The lid popped off the space dumpster once again, small motes of light that were in the five Ranger's  
colors starting to flow outwards. The lights began to move about the room, numbering in the  
thousands as more of them escaped their confinement.

“So many of them,” Val gasped.

“They're like pretty fireflies,” Buff whispered reverently before he noticed Val and Rich looking at him  
with raised eyebrows.

He quickly cleared his throat before adding, “Y'know. If you're into that kinda stuff.”

The motes of light suddenly broke apart into smaller pieces, revealing that each one had been a mass of  
hundreds more of the Nanomorph Machines. Before the Ranger's amazed eyes, the lights began to  
descend upon the raw materials and broken machinery strewn about the room. The objects slowly  
began to disintegrate as the microscopic robots broke them down and Rich watched sadly as the  
shattered Viewing Globe crumbled into nothingness.

“Don't think of it as the past being destroyed,” Val said, noticing Rich's expression, “My father always  
told me that the best use of old things was for them to help create and strengthen the future.”

Turning his gaze to the vanishing pile of blue, Triceratops emblem marked inventions, Rich asked,  
“Even if it's his own inventions?”

“Yes,” Val said with a nod, “In fact, he'd probably be the first to--”

She stopped and sighed. “It was when I called it the Rad Bug, wasn't it?”

“That and saying you wanted the color blue pretty much clinched it,” Rich replied with a small smirk.

As Sarah watched the Nanomorph Machines finish breaking down the waste and start constructing new  
equipment, her gaze momentarily shifted to Jason as he and Amber observed the activity with their  
backs to her. A momentary surge of anger ran through her, causing her jaw to tighten as her right hand  
clenched by her side. Surprised by her own reaction, she took a deep breath, forcing her jaw and hand  
to relax.

It was true, now that the reality of the situation was fully sinking in, she was feeling jealous over being  
left out. But now, she reasoned to herself, was not the time to be feeling green with envy.

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Fall Of An Old Friend (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new Power Rangers recover from their first battle and are introduced to their equally new headquarters. Meanwhile, Commander Darc and his forces begin their first plan to corrupt the healing Morphing Grid by making use of something from the past.

The shadow of Commander Darc's spaceship stretched out over the giant mass of the Oez Crystal on the moon's surface beneath it. The vessel's current geosynchronous orbit gave Darc many opportunities to gaze out upon the crystal through various view ports. He found doing so useful as a centering method when he needed to focus on his scheming, while waiting for one of his underlings to complete a task, or for a group of those minions to gather for a meeting.

It was the third reason that caused his current need to observe, his hands behind his back as he lightly rocked on the balls of his feet. The door to the meeting room hissed as it slid open and he looked over his shoulder to see his four generals make their way inside the large circular room that was bare save for the long table in the center. Each general took a seat, with Arenay and Saffear sitting on the left side of the table and Brainborg and Dienay sitting on the right side. Commander Darc moved to the larger chair that was at the head of the table and sat down at it, resting his elbows on the surface and steepling his hands in front of the mouth area of his helmet as he asked, “So what plans have you concocted to deal with our new Ranger friends?”

“Despite the setback viz ze Machine Empire, I have managed to upgrade ze Darcroids so zat zey vill be more capable in combat against ze Rangers,” Brainborg said, waving his hand towards the wall mounted monitor that was on the far side of the room.

The monitor showed an image of a large hanger bay full of black robots with dark gray armor over their shoulders, forearms, thighs, and knees. Their heads were faceless, with a black wedge-shaped plate in the place where the eyes, nose, and mouth would have been on a person. In the center of the gray chest plates each of them had, there was a silver mark that resembled the cobra design on Commander Darc's chest. Each of them held a black, short muzzled, two-handed blaster rifle with a bayonet blade attached to the front. As one, they turned towards the camera and raised their right arms in a clenched fist salute.

“Excellent work,” Darc replied with a small nod before looking at Saffear, “And I believe you said you might have something that could further several of our plans at once?”

“I do,” Saffear said as she looked over at Arenay, “If SOMEONE wouldn't mind lending me just a small bit of wax...”

With a growl, Arenay placed a small petri dish on the table, a minuscule smear of green on it, and slid the dish towards Saffear. “This is all I can spare,” he said.

“It will be enough,” Saffear replied with a smirk, “And don't be so grumpy. Think of it as a test run for your ultimate idea.”

Commander Darc leaned further forward in his chair as Arenay tilted his head to the side. “Now this sounds interesting,” Darc said, “Explain.”

“It's very simple,” Saffear said as she looked at the tiny sample in her hands, “Even with these new Rangers in place, the Grid is not entirely incorruptible. Especially if we make use of something that's been corrupted before.”

//

Jason grunted at the sound of the unfamiliar alarm coming from his cell phone and opened his eyes. It was a series of six, high-pitched, musical notes that he found he could mutter the words “Go Go Power Rangers” in time with and, curious as to why his phone was making such a noise, he sat up on the bed he had crashed on. Looking at the device sitting on the nightstand, he was further surprised to see the quickly becoming familiar looking circle and lightning bolts symbol flashing on the screen.

Picking it up and tapping the symbol, Jason brought the phone up to his ear and sleepily asked, “Hello?”

“Jason!” the voice of Delta exclaimed happily, “It works! The P.RAD App really works! Oh my my my! Thank goodness!”

“The what now?” Jason asked as he rubbed his eyes, his confusion sending a jolt of alertness to his brain.

“The Power Ranger Alert and Deployment App! I wasn't sure how well I could integrate this program into all of your Earth cellphones,” Delta chattered excitedly, “but now that I've confirmed yours works, I can conclude that all five have successfully installed.”

Jason sat there for a moment, his eyes narrowing. “Delta, are you telling me you hacked into all of our phones?”

“Of course!” Delta replied, seemingly not noticing the drop in Jason's tone of voice, “We have to stay in contact for when the Earth gets attacked again and since your kind use cellphones so constantly for so many things, it won't stand out when I need to call you or send you a text message warning you of danger.”

“Delta!” Jason snapped, “Our phones! You HACKED them!”

That seemed to snap Delta out of his excitement, his voice sounding scared and confused as he whimpered, “Oh my my my my. Was I not supposed to do that? Do you think the others will be mad too?”

“It's a pretty serious breach of a person's privacy to do it without asking permission first, Delta,” Jason said, “So they might be.”

“I... I'm sorry,” Delta said, and something in the robot's tone made Jason certain he meant it, “I've just been so excited to be able to carry out my duties after being in sleep mode for decades and making friends with all of you, I guess I didn't think about that.”

“So long as you ask first the next time you want to do something like this, we're cool,” Jason replied, his irritation fading in the face of the sympathy he felt, “Do you need me for anything else or was this just a check-in to make sure it's working?”

“It's more the latter than anything,” Delta replied, his cheerfulness returning just as quickly as it had left, “but I also wanted to let you know the Nanomorph machines have finished building the main chambers. They're still working on some of the secondary construction, but I'd like for all of you to come by to see what it looks like now that it's not a mess.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jason said, “I'll let the others know and see you later today.”

He hung up the phone, placed it back on the nightstand, and sighed as he looked around the room. The guest room in his father's condo was sparsely decorated, having only the bare necessities of a queen-sized bed, a single nightstand, a three-tiered dresser drawer, and a small closet. The only point of color on the white walls was a single poster that contained the image of a man's silhouette against the rising sun as the man performed what looked like a right thrust kick. At the top of the poster were the words “A STRONG BODY CONTAINS A STRONG MIND” and written at the bottom was “A STRONG MIND POWERS A STRONG BODY”.

Jason was fairly sure it was not a coincidence that the poster was positioned in such a way that it would always be one of the first things he saw when he woke up while visiting.

A knock at the door drew him out of his ruminations about his father's decorative skills and he heard Sarah call out from the other side, “You decent in there, Jason?”

He looked down at his red NASADA t-shirt and black sweatpants he had on before calling back, “Yeah, you can come in.”

Sarah entered the room looking like she had been awake for hours already, and probably had been. “You're lucky dad's already off teaching his noon class or he'd have heard you yelling at Delta.”

“NOON?!” Jason yelped in surprise, picking up his cellphone again to check the time, “Once the adrenaline wore off, most of last night was a blur. How long was I asleep?!”

“You crashed pretty much as soon as we finished dinner,” Sarah replied, “And you were down to monosyllables by that point. Dad was actually a little worried you had gotten sick or injured but I just told him you'd spent most of the afternoon helping some really freaked out and demanding kids find their dog and then their parents after everyone was done running from the giant bird and robot fight.”

She briefly smirked. “You know. Real superhero stuff.”

Jason smirked back, deciding not to comment on the note of bitterness that seemed to enter her voice. “Thanks for the cover, sis. I'm guessing you heard everything else too?”

“Yeah,” Sarah confirmed with a nod as she frowned, “Don't stay out too late, okay?”

A look of confusion crossed Jason's face for a moment before he realized why she seemed frustrated, “You're not coming with?”

Sarah shrugged lightly and confirmed Jason's suspicions by saying, “Wasn't invited.”

“That doesn't sound right,” Jason said as he finally hopped out of bed, “You're part of this too.”

“No powers,” Sarah grumbled, “Remember?”

“So what?!” Jason snapped back, another spike of anger at their robot friend jabbing through him, “You fought the Tengas too! And helped Delta set things up! At the very least you should get to see how the base turned out!”

He smiled and lightly bopped her shoulder with his fist, “And c'mon! You telling me you DON'T want to see how long it takes Rich to lose it once it sinks in that he's standing in a fully functional Power Rangers base?”

Sarah was silent for several moments. “Ten seconds,” she finally said, “Max.”

“I'm guessing he's going to try and hold it together for at least thirty,” Jason shot back.

“You wanna bet?” Sarah asked, her smirk returning.

Jason noticed that, this time, the smile reached her eyes and his own grin grew. “Loser cooks dinner?”

“Deal.”

\\\

For every familiar experience she had been having recently, Valestera found herself encountering a new experience as well.

Waking up in the back seat of the Rad Bug was one of her familiar experiences. She had gotten used to the stiffness in her neck and limbs that came with sleeping in the cramped space and how easily that stiffness was worked out with a series of long stretches and yawns. The new experience associated with it was the modified car being parked safely inside of a garage instead of in an open space or cave on some unknown planet or in mid-transit between the stars with Delta at the wheel.

The dull ache in her head and the uncomfortable feeling of dryness all over her body was the also familiar sensation of having gone too long without rehydrating. She turned over to open the door and slid out of the vehicle to see about dealing with the issue but had the new experience of tripping over another person propped up against the car's side.

Stumbling to regain her balance, Valestera looked over her shoulder to see Amber, wrapped in a blue blanket and her eye glasses knocked askew, looking around as she woke up with a startled snort. The smaller woman looked up at Val sheepishly once her senses returned to her and she adjusted her glasses back into place.

“Good morning,” Amber said, “Apologies but I was endeavoring to only rest my eyes for a brief moment and it seems I instead slumbered for...”

Amber paused to look at the clock on the wall of the garage and her eyes widened. “... a sufficient amount of time that I should amend my previous greeting to 'good afternoon'.”

“My father told me he and his friends slept a long time after their first morph too,” Val said, “Something about the body needing time to adjust to the new energies it was taking in once they fully powered down. The second morph should be a lot less draining.”

Amber hummed thoughtfully, clutching her blanket tighter around her as she looked down at her lap. “So we absolutely are going to find ourselves in combat again?”

“Possibly quite a few times,” Valestera replied in a matter of fact tone as she straightened up and made a beeline for a plastic wrapped six-pack of water bottles, “Those Tengas didn't send themselves down and I'm sure Commander Darc will have new tricks to show off soon enou--.”

Valestera noticed Amber's growing discomfort and felt a twinge of guilt. “Sorry,” she said, “When all this started happening, I was expecting we'd be recruiting people who wanted this like I did. Not... drafting the first compatible ones that we bumped into.”

Amber mulled over the Aquitian's words for several moments before standing up and letting the blanket fall from her shoulders. “As you previously stated,” she replied as she smoothed out some of the wrinkles in the clothes she had been wearing since yesterday, “Those Tengas did not descend from space unassisted. And I did agree to continue on in this endeavor, so please don't feel burdened on my account... even if I do fear I may be the one who becomes a burden.”

“I doubt that will happen,” Valestera said, “You seem stronger than you think you are.”

Amber smiled meekly. “Thank you for that.”

“I should be thanking you, really,” Val said as she removed two of the water bottles from the six pack, “Especially for letting me hide the Rad Bug here while the base is being constructed. Dad's going to be cross enough at me without accidentally letting his first car get eaten by Nanomorph drones for materials.”

“It's no difficulty,” Amber explained, “My parents have let me designate this area as my personal workspace, so there is a privacy here everyone else's domiciles could not provide.”

She sighed before adding, “And even if they did intrude, it wold be far more simplistic to explain why my vehicle has returned to its initial coloration than to explain why it has become an inoperable pancake.”

Valestera grunted in reply before unscrewing the cap on one of the water bottles and unceremoniously dumping its contents over her head. “Wait!” Amber started to exclaim as she scrambled towards the other woman, “We have showers for th--”

She stopped dead in her tracks, as well as mid-sentence, as she watched Val's visible skin ripple with blue colored energy that radiated down from where the water touched the top of her head. Amber was also amazed to notice that the liquid was being absorbed so completely that none of it even got down far enough to dampen the collar of Valestera's outfit. “Ahhh,” Val sighed as she let the first bottle drop to the ground and opened the second to take a light sip from it, “Much better.”

“Prodigious,” Amber whispered, fighting the urge to reach out and touch Val's face so that she could verify the evidence of her eyes, “I recall once having overheard that the Aquitian Rangers needed to regularly absorb vast quantities of water to function in our environment but to directly witness it is unparalleled.”

“I don't need to do it as often as most Aquitians,” Val replied, feeling strangely proud of having drawn such a sense of wonder from her fellow Ranger with what was such a natural act to her, “Or use as much when I do. But when I need to do it, I REALLY need to do it.”

Taking another sip from her the second bottle, she gave Amber a smirk and asked, “Now do you mind taking a look under the hood of the Rad Bug with me? I don't know if we'll be able to fix everything but maybe we can get a little done right now so it'll be easier to fix it the rest of the way once the base is up and running.”

“Oh,” Amber said with a small smile of her own, “I believe I may have completed that task while you were sleeping. I realize you said you wanted to wait until morning but I was so curious I could not contain myself. It looked like the main problem was as I surmised, an overheated engine. And it was most likely due to some of the coolant hoses having worn out and punctured. So I replaced them with some of the extras I still had on hand.”

Valestra stared at Amber in stunned silence, the water bottle slipping from her fingers to spill onto the concrete floor. “How?” she finally managed to ask.

“C-Car repair can be more simplistic than most people imagine,” Amber replied, squirming in nervousness at the unexpected change in Val's emotional state, “A-And most of this vehicles tech is still Earth-based, s-so I'm fairly sure I could guess how the alien parts factored in based on their relationship to the parts I did recognize...”

Amber trailed off as Valestera suddenly walked towards the driver's side of the Rad Bug, leaned in the open window and turned on the ignition. The engine quickly and smoothly purred to life and a quick check of the gauges on the dashboard indicated all of the vehicles functions were back to normal. “Just some new hoses did all this?” she asked in shock, “And you did this last night?! Weren't you tired?!”

Blushing in embarrassment, the shorter girl looked away from her. “When I'm laboring on a project I... sometimes forget to sleep... or eat.”

A sudden yawn caused Amber to bring a hand to her mouth. “In fact,” she said, “I believe I may require doing the latter so that I have the energy to be able to do more of the former.”

Turning the Rad Bug off again, Valestera felt her stomach gurgling at the mention of eating. “I could do with some food as well. Dad would sometimes talk about how he missed having a dish called 'guacamole cheeseburgers'. I'd like to try one of those, if you have any.”

“That... would be an unusual choice for breakfast,” Amber replied, “But it is technically lunch time, so most places with that item on their menus would have it available by now. Though, I suppose we'd need to order take out for you because...”

Amber waved a hand in the general direction of Valestera's appearance and the Aquitian smiled. “Actually,” she said, “I may have something for that.”

\\\

The floor of the bedroom was littered with exercise equipment and half-read bodybuilding magazines, creating a minefield of tripping hazards for any that dared enter. In the center of that metaphorical minefield Buff slept on his bed, his covers kicked off in the night and his snoring loud enough that the framed photos and posters on his walls rattled with each intake of breath.

Someone entered the room, expertly tip-toeing around the litter on the floor and leaned over the bed. Pulling a small feather out of their pocket, the person began rubbing it against the underside of Buff's nostrils, causing him to lightly paw at his own face, the person pulling back their feather as Buff muttered a few incomprehensible sleep talking words and drifted back into a deeper sleep.

Once it became clear the initial tickle assault had failed, the feather wielder redoubled their efforts, tickling and teasing Buff's nose until his eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up with a loud sneeze. His upward motion caused the feather to get lodged in his right nostril and knocked the one who had been holding it onto their back.

Pulling the feather out of his nose, Buff stared at it in groggy incomprehension for a moment before snapping his head in the direction of the person scrambling back to their feet as they exclaimed, “He's aliiiiiive!”

Lashing out to grab handfuls of the intruder's collar, Buff pulled them close and growled, “What are you doing in my house, Rich?”

“Your mom let me in,” Rich cheerfully chirped in reply, “She was worried about you. Said you only had only one of the double bacon cheeseburgers she made for you last night so she thought you were coming down with something.”

Letting Rich go, Buff rubbed the bridge of his nose and grumbled, “After yesterday, who wouldn't be exhausted?”

“I know what you mean,” Rich said, “I had to take an eight hour nap when I got home too.”

“That's not a 'nap', moron. That's called 'sleeping',” Buff snapped.

Rich shrugged. “I like naps better.”

“What's the diff--” Buff shook his head, “No. Never mind. Don't actually care. Why did you even come over?”

Rich gingerly stepped around two pairs of dumbbells to sit down on a workout bench near the bed. “Just wanted to talk about yesterday with someone,” he said, “Y'know... process it a little.”

“And you picked me?”

“Why would I pick anyone else, best buddy?”

Buff's face contorted into a variety of different emotions before he looked away to hide his quivering lower lip and grunted, “You wanna process? Then start processing, doufus.”

Rich slapped his hands together and all but screeched, “We're actually POWER RANGERS!”

All but launching himself out of bed, Buff slapped his hand over Rich's mouth as looked worriedly at the door and forcefully whispered, “Process QUIETLY. Got it?!”

Rich's eyes looked down at Buff's hand before rolling back up to look at Buff himself and nodding in understanding.

Giving Rich one last warning glare, Buff let go of his mouth and Rich repeated in a whispered tone, “We're actually Power Rangers!”

“I know,” Buff replied, “I kinda figured that out when I was suddenly in way too much yellow spandex.”

“Actually,” Rich interjected, “It's not spandex but a highly durable and flexible metallic compound material with--”

“It looks and feels like spandex,” Buff interrupted, “So I'm calling it spandex.”

Rich sighed and shook his head. “We really gotta work on your sense of curiosity, Buff.”

“If it's important,” Buff shot back, “then I'll get curious.”

“In that case,” Rich said, a smirk growing on his face, “Let me ask you a question. Do you remember taking off your Morph In Belt at any point after we changed back?”

Buff opened his mouth to reply before he quickly shut it again. His expression grew worried as he examined the floor around him before turning to face his bed and frantically searching through the tangled up covers. “I know it's here somewhere...” he muttered.

Rich watched Buff's actions in amusement for several seconds before speaking up. “Don't worry, you didn't lose it. In fact, it's right where it needs to be.”

Dropping the blanket in his hands, Buff spun back around to face Rich with a baffled expression. “Look down at your gut,” Rich said, “And think about the belt being there.”

“Okay, but I don't have a 'gut',” Buff grumbled as he did as instructed,” These babies are finely chiseled a—AAAAAAAAH!”

He was unable to stop the loud scream of surprise that escaped his throat as, in a flash of light, his Morph In Belt appeared around his waist. Rich leaned in, quickly slapping both of his hands over the larger teenager's mouth to muffle the sound. Both of them looked towards the door and strained their ears, but all they heard was the distant clanking of weights and the tinny sound of equally distant mid 90s rock music.

“Thank goodness for pre-lunch workouts, huh?” Rich commented.

Buff nodded once in agreement before narrowing his eyes and slapping Rich's hands away from his mouth. “So how'd you figure this out?” he asked.

“When I got home,” Rich replied, “I saw the belt was gone but I just kinda knew it was still around somehow. Like you did just now.”

At Buff's nod, Rich continued with, “So I got to thinking, the old Morphers were all small belt buckles or wrist watch things. Stuff you could stash in your pockets or hide under your sleeves to protect the ol' secret identity.”

“Yeah, this thing seems a bit too big for that,” Buff said, looking down at the device, “Need a pretty thick shirt at least.”

“Right,” Rich said, “But then I remembered reading about this one time the Rangers went to another planet to help the guys who built their own little robot friend. This planet also had a guy who was a hero too and could transform using a belt he just kinda willed onto his body when he needed it. So I thought, if Zordon borrowed their robot tech, maybe he had that tech stashed away for a rainy day too.”

“Where's it come from?” Buff asked, opening a small compartment on the side of the belt to see his yellow Power Chip stored inside.

Rich shrugged. “Have to ask Delta to be sure but they could be teleported in from somewhere, or it's energy particles all around us that solidify when needed, or could even be a thin layer of Nanomoph Machines all over our bodies at all times.”

“... That last one is gross and now I feel kinda itchy.”

A knock on the door caused the two young men to freeze. “Yeah, mom?” Buff asked, his Morph-In Belt vanishing as quickly as he had summoned it.

“Just checking to see if my little Muscle Man is feeling any better,” his mother's voice called back from the other side of the door.

Buff's cheeks tinted red both at the childish nickname and Rich's raised eyebrows in response to hearing it. “I'm fine,” he replied, “Just overdid the cardio a little yesterday.”

“Glad to hear it. I have to get back to work early. Your father called and said some kids spilled juice all over the treadmills. If you and your friend are hungry, we still have plenty of that protein waffle batter left.”

“Okay, thanks!” Buff said, waiting for the sound of footsteps to fade before letting out a sigh of relief.

He returned his attention to Rich, who was grinning from ear-to-ear. “If you tell ANYONE,” Buff snarled, “ESPECIALLY Sarah...”

“Does your dad still have all those old waffle irons with the Red Ranger faces?” Rich asked.

“Of course he does.”

“Then I will accept a bribe for my silence in the form of two chocolate chip and pecan Zeo Ranger Five waffles,” Rich paused to snicker, “My little Muscle Man.”

\\\

Delta-3 hummed to himself as he checked the data on the various control panels surrounding him, making note of the progress of the Nanaomorph machines on several other construction projects deeper within the facility. Jason had not been specific about the time when he and the other Rangers would be arriving but, given what his internal databanks had informed him about human teenagers, Delta was sure that it would not be too much longer. It was only the middle of the afternoon and teens needed to be in bed early enough to get a good amount of healthy sleep, so it was unlikely they would keep him waiting until night time.

Eventually red, yellow, and black beams of teleportation energy shot through the ceiling to land near where he was standing. Delta turned to greet the arrivals but stopped as a high-pitched alarm began to blare and red lights around the room began to flash. “Oh my my!” he all but screeched, “Intruder Alert! Intruder Ale-- oh. Hi, Sarah.”

“Told you the technology here doesn't seem to like me too much,” Sarah said as she let go of Jason's shoulder once the red beams around them faded and Delta quickly turned off the alarm, “Even if it is pretty cool looking.”

“No kidding,” Jason agreed as he looked around as well.

The siblings were slack-jawed as the room that had once been a cluttered mess only a single day ago was now in a completely different form. The entire space seemed much larger, having ballooned to the size of a large, chair-less movie theater. In the center of the room was a small, circular, raised platform rimmed with the different control panels that Delta-3 was working with. The robot would occasionally look up at the upper area of the walls and, when the four humans did the same, they saw the entire room was encircled by a ring of large viewing screens. The screens appeared to allow for a three hundred and sixty degree, panoramic view if necessary, though currently they were only displaying scrolling numbers and alien letters.

The lower walls were taken up by human-sized display cases with each containing a different, previous Power Ranger's costume along with their signature weapon on a pedestal besides them. The five original Rangers suits were displayed along what was nominally the front wall. Across from them on the back wall were the five Space Ranger suits. The left side held the Zeo and Turbo costumes and weapons. On the right side were the Alien Rangers and a grouping of the Green, White, Gold, Silver, and Phantom Rangers.

“I dunno,” Buff said as he squirmed, “All these eyes on us at all times? Kinda feels like all the old Rangers are being a bit... judge-y of us. What do you think Ri-- oh come ON! You can't control yourself for TWO seconds?!”

Rich, who had raced over to the display of Zeo costumes the second his feet had hit the ground, had his hands and cheek pressed against the tube of the Blue Zeo Ranger. “But Buuufff!” he squeaked, “We're in a FULLY OPERATIONAL Power Rangers base! With mementos!”

He sighed happily, his hands and cheek flattening further against the glass, “The best! Mementos! EVER!”

Jason sighed in acceptance and shook his head, Sara shooting him a wry smirk as she asked, “So what's for dinner?”

“Pancakes and meatloaf.”

Sarah stared at him for a moment before flatly stating, “You really need to learn to cook something else.”

All four humans looked up as there was suddenly the sound of whirling gears and sliding metal. A large hatch in the ceiling began to open, exposing the blue sky of the mountaintop their base was under. “It's even got a sunroof,” Rich marveled.

“Please stand back from the open doorway,” Delta-3 said, “The Rad Bug will be landing in that space--”

The Rad Bug suddenly dropped out of the sky and through the open hatch at a high rate of speed, causing Jason and the others to scatter backwards. The flying car looked like it was about to crash but suddenly came to a halt an inch above the ground before slowly lowering the rest of the way down onto its wheels.

“-- right about now.”

The driver side door swung open and, to everyone's surprise, Amber staggered out. Her eyes wide and bodily shaking, she braced herself on the open car door as she panted out, “That... was... prodigiously... intense.”

The passenger door opened and a woman that looked vaguely familiar to the others stepped out. She had brown hair that was trimmed in a rigid looking buzz cut, green eyes, and was dressed in black slacks and a light pink t-shirt that had the heavily faded logo for the long out of print Beetleborgs comic book on the front. “That actually wasn't too bad for your first time,” she said to Amber, “You didn't take out any rooftop antennas at least.”

Her voice lacked the strange gurgling echo it once had but Jason and Sarah still instantly recognized it. “Val?! They both exclaimed in surprise.

“That's Pinkey?!” Buff gasped as he looked her over, “And what's with the dated fashion statement?”

Val glared at Buff. “Yes, it's me,” she snapped before bringing up a hand to touch her throat, “Ugh. How do you humans stand having your voices sound so... flat?”

“Valestera's physical dimensions are roughly similar to my mothers,” Amber interjected, “So I simply procured clothing that was intended to be donated.”

“And the Blender Bracelet appears to be working perfectly!” Delta-3 added.

“Blender Bracelet?” Buff asked as Val pointed to a seemingly plain looking white bracelet on her left wrist.

“It helps you blend in by creating a solid hologram projection of what you would look like as the species you are trying to blend in with and it's a bracelet,” Delta-3 explained, “So, Blender Bracelet!”

“Okay, I am... eighty-five percent certain you can't use the word 'blender' like that.”

“I can't?” Delta asked, looking at the others in a worried way.

“Technically,” Jason said, “You can use words however you want. But let's talk about that later. C'mon, Delta! You wanted us to be here so you could show this place off! So give us the grand tour before Rich's head explodes!”

Rich ran to Jason's side, nodding his head eagerly in agreement, and the others quickly added in their own approvals. “Alright then,” Delta-3 said, puffing his chest area pridefully, “Let me formally introduce you to... The Command Den!”

After letting the teens get another look around the wide open room, Delta continued, “You will notice, aside from my workstation, most of the floor space seems rather empty.”

“And I'm assuming there's a reason for that,” Val stated.

“Correct! Allow me to demonstrate.”

Pressing and holding down a button on the console to his right, Delta leaned in closer to it and said, “Ground level control console.”

Near the six teenagers, a portion of the floor started to ripple and shimmer as if it had become liquid. All of their eyes widened as the small segment of the floor rose up, shifting its form until it became an identical console to the one Delta had been using. “Is this more of the Nanomorph machines?” Val asked.

“Correct!” Delta-3 answered, “Once most of them are done with their initial construction, they will be available to create temporary constructs that can be used to assist in your duties. They can't create anything fully organic or edible, but otherwise...”

He waved his hand towards he newly formed console and, after sharing a glance with the others, Jason stepped forward, pressed the button on the console and asked, “Chair?”

Another near-by section of the floor shifted and remolded itself into the shape of a simple, unpainted wooden chair. Jason made his way over to the chair and sat down on it, shaking the armrests lightly. “Sturdy and no splinters on my butt,” he said, “Not bad.”

Amber was the next to try. “Workbench,” she said before gasping at the metallic table and stool that rose from the ground.

“Let's try something more specialized,” Vat said before pressing the button, “So You Fear Fish by Doctor Martin Brody. Fifteenth Edition.”

A pedestal with a thick looking book rose from the floor. Val picked up the book and began flipping through the pages. She started to snicker and shook her head. “Still the best comedy I've ever read.”

“It knows cultural stuff?” Rich asked.

“I scanned all available sources on both your internet and the detailed records in the Z Archives to add the information to the database,” Delta replied, “So we should be relatively up to date on historical and modern cultural items.”

“Then let's see about one that technically doesn't exist,” Rich said, rubbing his hands together before pressing the button, “An Adult-sized Red Turbo Zord bed.”

The requested item formed up out of the floor and Val dropped her book in surprise as Rich let out a whoop of joy and bodily dove onto the bed's mattress, burying his face in the pillows. “Seriously?” Buff asked in disbelief.

“I could never get one of these as a kid,” Rich replied as he rolled over onto his back, “So if we're putting this place through its paces, we may as well shoot for the moon, right?”

“Alright then,” Buff said as he pressed the button, “Whip me up--”

A pipe suddenly shot up out of the floor, curving until the mouth was pointed at Buff's face. “What the--” was all he managed to get out before a torrent of whipped cream shot out of the pipe to splatter over his face.

Sarah yelped and back peddled several steps to escape the splash zone untouched while Val and Rich simultaneously broke out laughing. Amber gave him a pitying look while Jason tried to do the same despite the fact both his shoulders and lips were twitching. “You okay?” he finally managed to ask, keeping his voice mostly steady.

“Yeah,” Buff growled, his eyes closed, “Thought these things couldn't do food.”

“Oh my,” Delta exclaimed, “they actually managed to access the food replicator system to pull that off. I didn't know they could DO that! Now I know that I need to better refine the language parser And the Nanomorph machines can carry out more tasks than I thought! Thank you so much, Buff!”

Buff slowly opened his eyes, his teeth gritted in anger. He then closed his eyes again and took a deep breath before hissing out, “You're welcome.”

“Towel,” Jason, who had stood up and made his way to the console said as he pressed the button.

He grabbed the red towel that appeared on the pillar Val had taken her book from and held it out to Buff. “Kinda hard to stay mad at him when he's so earnest bout everything, isn't it?”

“Yeah,” Buff sighed before licking his lips, “Also, this is really good whipped cream.”

Delta's head tilted to the side slightly as he asked, “Oh my, did I say something wrong? Again?”

Sarah scooped out some of the whipped cream still in the pipe and brought it to her mouth for a taste test. After letting out a pleased sounding hum, she looked up at Delta and said, “Don't worry about it. So while this room's neat and all, what's the rest of the place for?”

“Aside from this room,” Delta answered, “There will be the Zord hangers, which are still being worked on, and some storage rooms. Oh, and Val's sleeping quarters, dining area and rehydration room are completed... but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show you those.”

“I'd rather not until I get settled in, Delta,” Val said.

Amber frowns as she asked, “You are electing to remain isolated out here? I'm sure, now that you have your optical cover, I could convince my parents to allow you to habituate our guest room for a period of time.”

“I appreciate the offer,” Val replied, “but it's safer if I stay here.”

She tapped the bracelet. “Need to take this off when I have to sleep or rehydrate. Not to mention it needs to recharge now and again.”

“I... understand your reasoning,” Amber said, looking down at her feet, “It just sounds so... lonely.”

Val blinked in surprise but then smiled as she said, “I'll be okay. I'll have Delta for company and I'm not going to be staying here ALL the time. At the very least, I'd have to check in to see how you're taking care of the Rad Bug for me.”

Amber's eyes widened as she squeaked, “Please reiterate that previous statement.”

“Like you said,” Val explained, “It WOULD be strange if your car just vanished. Not to mention that it would be a good idea to have it somewhere else that we could get to in an emergency. Just in case.”

“It's true,” Rich interjected as he lazily leaned back on his bed, “The old girl was important for getting to the OG Command Center whenever the teleportation system went down.”

Val nodded once in Rich's direction before looking back at Amber. “And frankly, you understood more about how it works in a day than I've understood the whole time I've been on the run with it. You're the best choice.”

Amber was uncertain if she was going to blush, smile, or cry. She ended up dong a mixture of all three and Val grew slightly alarmed as she asked, “Are... you okay?”

“I'm fine,” Amber sniffed out, taking a deep breath to calm herself, “but you reminded me of something you mentioned previously that I wanted to inquire about. You referred to the one who was pursuing you as a 'Commander Darc'. Could you illuminate us more on what he is like?”

Val frowned grimly. “I can but not by much. Nobody seems sure of where he came from but he and his lieutenants have already attacked several planets, most of them containing the ruins of old Alliance of Evil strongholds but there was also KO-35...”

“KO-35?” Rich asked, “Isn't that where the Red Space Ranger came from?”

Val nodded at Rich again. “I suspect Darc was looking for Delta and the space dumpster, either hidden by Zordon's allies or captured by his enemies without them realizing what they had. He hasn't been shy about using any of the other surviving weaponry he's found along the way though.”

“Like that Oez Crystal thing that made the Tenga giant-sized?” Sarah asked.

“The Oez Crystal is more than just a weapon,” Delta-3 said, tapping several buttons on the control console to his left, “Observe the Viewing Ring.”

Tilting their heads upwards, the teenagers watched as the circle of view screens switched from alien coding to the image of an Earth-like planet spinning in space. Zooming in, the panoramic view descended through the atmosphere until it closed in on a small, futuristic looking city surrounded by a green, lush forest. “This was KO-35's capital city two years, forty-five days, seven hours, and eighteen minutes ago.”

“I don't like that you used the word 'was' there,” Buff said.

“Then I'm sorry but you're going to like this even less,” Delta replied before hitting another button, “because this is KO-35's capital city starting from two years, forty-five days, seven hours, and eight minutes ago.”

The screens jumped to a different image and all five humans present gasped in horror at the sight, Val's jaw tightening angrily. Where the city had once been there were innumerable, towering, red-veined purple crystals. The forest had either withered away from the mass, as if trying to escape its touch, or become blackened and twisted around it.

“Such total transmogrification in ten minutes!?” Amber whispered, her hands covering her mouth.

“Were there any survivors?” Jason asked.

“We don't know,” Val said, “When we lost contact with them suddenly, Aquitar sent a rescue ship to investigate. It vanished without a trace along the way.”

She paused for a moment, struggling to keep her lips from quivering before she added, “My sister, Arora, was on that ship.”

“Is... is this what they got planned for Earth?” Buff asked once he found his voice again.

The alarms started to blare again before anyone could answer him and Delta-3 quickly turned towards a different console to look over the readings it gave to him.

“Oh my my my my my MY,” he yelped, “Multiple teleportation signals detected along with a small trace of Oez Crystal energy!”

“Where?!” Jason barked as the other Rangers gathered around him.

Taking a moment to double check his readings, Delta replied, “By Angel Grove Bay! Near the fish processing factories and warehouses!”

Rich's face scrunched up in thought as he remarked, “Why is that setting off extra warning bells in my head?”

“Let us know if you figure it out,” Jason said as he and the other four Rangers willed their Morph In Belts into existence around their waists.

“Be careful out there,” Sarah said, taking a step back.

Jason gave her a nod and a reassuring smile before he pulled out his Power Chip and shouted, “IT'S MORPH IN TIME!”

The five each inserted their Chips into their Belts, the computerized voice calling out their transformation as they were teleported away.

“ZEO RANGERS POWER!”

“NINJA RANGER POWER!”

“TURBO RANGER POWER!”

“MIGHTY MORPHING RANGER POWER!”

“SPACE RANGER POWER!”

\\\

When Saffear, Dienay, and a large swarm of Darcroids first appeared on the docks in flashes of blue lightning, many of the younger dockworkers froze in confusion. The older, experienced workers recognized an impending monster attack when they saw one and quickly inspired their juniors to join them in a frantic evacuation.

Dienay drew his sidearm, chuckling cruelly as he took aim at the fleeing figures. He looked over at Saffear in surprise as she slapped his arm down with her free hand and snapped, “No! Save your energy for when the Rangers arrive. No distractions!”

“Fiiiiine,” Dienay grumbled in disappointment, “If this works like you say it will, we're gonna enjoy a lot more humans runnin' away anyway.”

“Exactly,” Saffear said as she walked towards the edge of the dock they stood on.

She held out her left hand, revealing the small shard of Oez Crystal in her palm. The shard was coated with the small amount of green wax she had been given and the blue-haired woman sent a small amount of her energy into the combined object before dropping it into the water. “And now... we wait.”

“How long is this gonna take?” Dienay asked.

“Long enough for--”

Saffear was cut off by the crackling sound of teleportation energy as five multi-colored beams of light decended from the sky to deposit the transformed Power Rangers onto a near-by warehouse rooftop. She smiled wickedly as she added, “-- us to properly say hello to our new Ranger friends.”

“Do any of those guys look familiar to you, Val?” the Red Ranger asked as he surveyed the situation below them.

“Those robots look like Commander Darc's Darcroids,” the Pink Ranger replied, the others noticing that the gurgling reverb had returned to her voice, “And the two in blue are Saffear and Dienay. They're two of Darc's lieutenents. If he's sending them down first thing, he's got something big right off the bat.”

“You got NO idea, little fishie,” Dienay laughed, “Blast 'em!”

As one, the squad of black robots aimed their blaster rifles up at the Rangers and pulled the triggers. Waves of red energy bolts flew towards the Rangers, who all responded by leaping into the air and over the blasts that struck where they had been standing only a second earlier.

The Red Ranger flipped forward in mid-air, twisting his body to aim a flying kick at the chest of one of the Darcroids and knocking it off its feet. Landing in a crouch, the Red Ranger lashed out with a leg sweep that took out two more of the black robots before rising up with an uppercut that sent a fourth Darcroid down to the ground.

At the same time, the Blue Ranger grabbed the shoulders of the Darcroid she was descending towards and, using momentum, flipped it over and into three of its near-by companions. Bouncing back to her feet, she dodged the bayonet stabs of two more Darcroids before leaping up in a split kick that knocked the two attackers away.

Fighting on top of a series of stacked shipping containers, the Pink Ranger unleashed a jumping spin kick at the Darcroid in front of her before turning and running the robot to her right through the stomach area with her sword. The Darcroid's back exploded in a shower of sparks and smoke as the Pink Ranger pulled her weapon free and the mechanical soldier fell off the side.

The Black and Yellow Rangers stood back-to-back with their blasters drawn, each sniping down three more Darcroids before they had to dodge out of the way of a swarm of return fire from several more robots. Taking cover behind a large magnetic crane, the two occasionally peeking out to take a shot at one of the robots whenever they tried to charge their position, the Yellow Ranger said, “These bolt brains don't seem anywhere near as tough as the Tengas.”

“Yeah,” the Black Ranger replied, trying to count how many were left whenever he took a look, “but in proper mook fashion, there's a heck of a lot more of them!”

They both looked up as Dienay stepped in front of them with his own blaster drawn. “Dibs on the fradey cats!”

“Hey! Taking cover isn't--” the Yellow Ranger started to protest before, with a yelp of surprise, he and the Black Ranger were forced to commando roll in opposite directions to avoid the blue bolts of energy that came out of Dienay's gun when he pulled the trigger.

The Black Ranger drew his Power Pod Sword, the baton extending from the hilt as he pulled it free while coming out of his roll. “If you're a lieutenant,” he shouted, “then let's see if you're a Goldar or an Elgar!”

He leaped into the air, aiming his weapon in a downward slash, but Dienay reacted faster than he had expected, and the monster was able to re-aim up at him and fire again. The blast caught the Black Ranger on the chest, sparks exploding off his body at the point of impact as he crash landed flat on his back.

“Rich!” the Yellow Ranger shouted in alarm as he fired off a shot from his own blaster.

To his surprise, Dienay shifted his body to the side slightly to avoid the laser bolt and returned fire, the resultant explosive impact against his armor knocking him off his feet. The eye-covered alien snorted and shook his head. “Guess they don't make Rangers like they used to.”

Dienay approached the seemingly stunned Black Ranger and prepared to blast him from close range. Suddenly, the Black Ranger rocked his body backwards, his rising legs knocking away Dienay's gun hand as he lifted himself into a handstand. From his upside-down position, the Black Ranger spun around on his palms so that he was facing Dienay before lashing out with a flurry of bicycling kicks.

“OW! HEY! OW!” Dienay exclaimed as he put his arms in front of his face to defend himself, “What are you doin'?!”

“Hiphopkido,” Rich proudly proclaimed as he smiled behind his helmet, “Also distracting you!”

Without even getting a chance to ask what the Black Ranger meant, Dienay was struck by a charging, recovered Yellow Ranger. His Blade Blaster back in blade mode, the Yellow Ranger sent sparks flying with each slash he landed on Dienay before the Black Ranger flipped back up onto his feet and the two Power Rangers jumped up to deliver a double drop kick to the alien. The force of the combined kicks was enough to send Dienay flying through the air, only stopping when he collided against the side of a shipping container and slowly slid down to the ground.

“Yeah, I'm thinking he's an Elgar,” the Black Ranger quipped as the Yellow Ranger shook his head at him in exasperation.

After cutting down two more Darcroids with her sword, the Pink Ranger heard a rush of air behind her and quickly turned, raising her sword to block the incoming blow of the purple, crystalline saber chopping down at her head.

“I HATE leaving a job half finished,” Saffear, who wielded the saber, snarled as her blade locked with the Pink Ranger's in a test of strength, “So it's finally time to finish you off!”

“You couldn't finish me when I was only running away,” the Pink Ranger retorted even as her arms quivered slightly while she struggled against Saffear's strength, “Now that I can fight back, it's not going to be as easy as you think!”

The two hopped back several steps simultaneously, breaking their sword lock, before Saffear lunged back in with two quick stabs that the Pink Ranger just as quickly parried. In response, the Pink Ranger tried two stabs of her own that Saffear parried as well. Attempting an overhead slash, the Pink Ranger was surprised as her sword cut through empty air when Saffear suddenly blinked out of existence. A second later, she reappeared behind her and taunted, “Over here, Ranger!”

Val snarled to herself as she turned to slash at her opponent again but Saffear was once again no longer there when her blow struck. When she reappeared again, the blue-haired woman was behind the Pink Ranger and scored a blow on her back with an overhead slash of her own. She then grabbed the staggered Ranger by the shoulder and spun her around so that she could land a slicing blow on her torso.

The Pink Ranger dropped to one knee, the tip of her sword digging into the metal of the shipping container as she heavily leaned on her sword like it was the only thing keeping her from keeling over. Saffear clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Two tiny little taps and it's over?” she chuckled, “You were right. It wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be...”

She reared back with her saber, swinging it down to strike the final blow as she snarled, “... It was even EASIER!”

Instead of striking something solid, Saffear stumbled forward in surprise as her blade his empty pink cloth that crumpled on impact. Staring at the cloth in confusion, Saffear failed to notice the Pink Ranger jump up from seemingly out of nowhere with a flying kick. The kick hit Saffear on the right side of her face, sending her staggering off the edge of the container and falling to the concrete below.

“You're not the only one who can do disappearing tricks!” the Pink Ranger snapped.

The Red Ranger landed a karate chop to the back of another Darcroid's neck, the robot collapsing as arcs of electricity raced up and down its body. He had already taken out around twenty of the Darcroids but, as he took a quick look around, it felt like there were at least another fifty left. Letting out a heavy breath, he drew his Astro Blaster and fired two shots, taking out two more Darcroids before side-stepping an attempt by another of the machines to strike him with the butt of its blaster rifle. In return he backhanded the machine, striking it on the side of the head with the butt of his own weapon, cracking the armored shell and causing the Darcroid to collapse.

He looked over in the direction of the Blue Ranger, who was wielding a weapon he had not seen her using before. In her hands was a large, silver sword with a v-shaped hilt that had a golden turbine in the center. The handle was red and black and looked to have an extra, large rip cord handle at the bottom. She was using it to cut through the armor of three more Darcroids before she ran over to stand next to the Red Ranger.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed in surprise, “Where'd you get that?!”

“I am uncertain,” the Blue Ranger replied, “I was pondering that this situation would require a more dedicated melee weapon for maximum efficiency and it sort of... appeared. And I am somehow aware of its designation of 'Turbo Blade'.”

“Hey, how you guys doing?!” the Yellow Ranger bellowed as he, the Black Ranger, and the Pink Ranger ran over to regroup with the other two.

The Red Ranger looked over at Yellow's Blade Blaster, Pink's katana, Black's Power Pod Sword, and Blue's Turbo Blade before looking down at his lone Astro Blaster. “Feeling a little left out,” he said, before returning his attention to the battle, “but whatever! Let's finish sending these guys packing!”

“Finish?!” Dienary, who had gotten back to his feet and regrouped with Saffear and the remaining Darcroids, “Oh we're just gettin' started Little Red Rang--”

The ground suddenly trembled, both the invaders and the Rangers staggering about as the earth unexpectedly heaved beneath them. “An earthquake?!” the Yellow Ranger exclaimed, “Now?!”

The ground shook for a second time and then, after a brief pause, a third.

“N-Negative,” the Blue Ranger said as she regained her balance, “these vibrations are too consistently rhythmic to be natural tectonic activity.”

“Yeah, they feel more like really big foot steee-eeeps!” the Red Ranger said as he was interrupted by another rumbling.

The Black Ranger suddenly turned and pointed frantically at the bay. “Guys! I think I remembered why I had a bad feeling about this place!”

Turning in the same direction, the other Rangers collectively gasped as they saw the waters of the bay were bubbling and churning. Large waves radiated out that capsized smaller boats and threatened to run several of the massive cargo ships aground as well. In the center of the foaming chaos, something began to rise up.

A large, curved, silver blade with a green and gold painted underside was the first thing to be visible. The blade was attached to the back of a black shell with a golden forehead, giving it the appearance of a samurai's helmet when framed against its emerging face. The face had two glowing red eyes and and a stubby, lizard-like mouth filled with jagged, metal teeth.

Its large, triangular, golden shoulders with a stripe of green in the center was the next part to be visible, leading down to short, stubby arms with hands that lacked fingertips. Its green, segmented neck was attached to a rounded torso that had a golden, circular chest plate in the center. The chest plate was dotted with a circle of five, flashing red lights with a sixth light in the center.

As it walked into shallower water, its lower body, legs and feet were exposed. At the center of its waist was a large letter Z and on each hip was a golden, three-toed dragon claw symbol. Its block-shaped, actual three-toed feet were topped with green bands that had the same claw symbol upon them.

The final detail was the long, silvery tail with gold highlights made of circular segments that terminated in a four-pronged drill and swayed behind the gigantic battle machine as if it was a living thing of its own. Taking in the sight, the Rangers stared in slack-jawed awe as the machine reared back and let out a screeching roar to the sky.

“The Dragonzord...” the Black Ranger whispered reverently.

“That's our cue to leave,” Saffear said, “Have fun with your new friend!”

Saffear, Dienay, and the Darcroids quickly vanished in teleportation rays of blue lightning bolts that zipped up into the sky, leaving the Rangers alone with the Zord. “Big guy must have scared them off,” the Yellow Ranger laughed, cupping his hands around the mouth area of his helmet before shouting, “THANKS!”

He then became aware of the tension still in the air and how none of his teammates showed any signs of relaxing, “What's the matter with you dorks?” he asked, “I mean, c'mon! Even I know the Dragonzord was one of the good guys!”

“Not... always,” the Pink Ranger replied as the Black Ranger kept looking between the Dragonzord and something else.

Under his helmet, Jason frowned as he watched the Dragonzord fully come to shore. Something deep in his gut was telling him something was wrong with the situation and that feeling only increased as he realized that the Dragonzord was still moving forward with no sign of stopping. “Everyone scatter!” he screamed.

Realizing what was happening, the five Rangers dove to the sides, the Dragonzord's foot stomping down where they once stood. Coming out of a roll and up to one knee, the Red Ranger looked around to see that the others were okay and noticed that the Black Ranger was still looking at something past the Dragonzord, in the direction it was walking. Following his line of sight, Jason noticed the object of his black-clad friend's attention was a white-and-red stripped smokestack sticking out of the nearest fish processing plant. “Rich?” he started to ask, “What--”

The Dragonzord's tail flicked out as it continued to march, slamming into the side of a warehouse and causing it to crumble into rubble before whipping in the other direction so the warehouse on the other side met the same face. The Rangers ducked and covered to avoid the flying pieces of concrete and mortar as the Zord came to a stop in front of the factory and reached down. Wrapping its fingers around the smokestack, it pulled upwards, tearing the large pipe out of the building before slowly bringing it to its open mouth and chomping down on it like it was an over-sized candy cane.

“Okay, that clinched it,” the Black Ranger said as the team stood back up, “He's in bad guy mode.”

Dropping the rest of the smokestack, where it crashed into the factory it had been ripped from, the Dragonzord turned back around to face the Power Rangers.

Its eyes began to change, shifting from red to purple and Jason felt a chill run down his spine.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. Fall Of An Old Friend (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Dragonzord, corrupted by the energy of the Oez Crystal, begins to attack the Amalgam Rangers. In the heat of the moment, a disagreement over the best way to fight back causes a rift between the newfound team and separate plans are formed that could equally end in disaster.

“Whoa...” Sarah whispered softly as she stared up at the image of the Dragonzord standing among the wreckage it had caused on the Viewing Ring, “The old news footage never did the size of these things justice.”

“Ooooh, this is bad!” Delta-3 moaned as he switched from control panel to control panel on his dedicated platform, “My my MY! If those villains have done what I think they've done, this is REALLY bad!”

Unable to take her gaze away from the image on the screens, Sarah asked, “Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?”

“Not at this moment,” Delta-3 replied as he kept working, “Right now, all I can do is redirect as many Nanomorph machines as possible to finishing up the construction of the Zords! I don't know if the Pink Battle Borg on its own will be able to handle this!”

Momentarily looking up, Delta noticed Sarah was still gazing up at the Dragonzord, her back to him. Her body language was tense and he saw her fists were tightly clenched and trembling by her sides. “I'm sorry,” he said, “I know you're worried about them and if I think of anything at all you can help me with, I'll let you know.”

“Thanks,” Sarah said sharply, without turning around.

Delta-3 saw that she relaxed a little, but only a little.

\\\

The now purple-eyed Dragonzord raised its hands, pointing its empty fingers down at the team of Power Rangers near its feet. Missiles suddenly popped into place where fingertips would have been and, only a second later, began to fire.

The missiles streaked down towards the Rangers with their explosive payloads, the team being able to avoid any direct hits from the projectiles but being knocked head-over-heels by the shock waves from the resultant explosions as the missiles slammed into the ground. Landing painfully on his back, the Red Ranger rolled to his right to avoid chunks of falling asphalt, metal, wood, and glass that had been launched into the air as well. Getting back up to one knee, he called out, “Everyone okay?!”

“I'm fine!” the Pink Ranger snapped to his left.

“N-Nothing fractured,” the Blue Ranger groaned behind him.

Looking up from where he had landed on his stomach to Jason's right, the Black Ranger whispered in a voice that was a mixture of excitement and terror, “He actually shot the finger missiles.”

“Yeah,” the Yellow Ranger added, sitting up next to Rich, “I'm okay too.”

The Dragonzord let out a shrieking roar and aimed a kick at a near-by pile of shipping containers, sending the massive hunks of metal flying towards the Rangers that they frantically had to dodge. Rolling under an orange container that passed only inches over him to crash into the side of a warehouse, Jason looked over at Val and called out, “Looks like we're going to need the Battle Borg here!”

“Right!” Val replied, reaching into the compartment on the side of her Morph In Belt to pull out the coin, “Normally, I'd hate smashing an ancient relic to pieces but in this case...”

“Hey, hold on a sec!” Rich exclaimed suddenly holding up his hand, “You can't just destroy it! The Dragonzord may act bad sometimes but it's an ally of the Rangers! Something's wrong and we gotta fix it!”

Before the argument could continue, the Dragonzord attacked again, spinning around as it swung its massive tail at the tiny enemies before it. Jumping high into the air to avoid the attack, the Rangers landed on a near-by rooftop as the tail smashed into the wreckage of a mostly collapsed warehouse. Its swing continued on to strike a pair of construction cranes as well and came to a sudden stop, the girders of metal folding and collapsing in a way that the Zord found its tail temporarily stuck in them. 

“There isn't anything to fix!” Val shouted, turning to face Rich now that they had a free moment, “I've seen those kind of purple eyes before! I don't know how they did it but it's been taken over by the Oez Crystal! And it's only going to get worse! We have to destroy it now!”

“If it's being controlled by something else, then we save it!” Rich shot back, pointing his finger in Val's face, “We have to have hope that we can save everyone and everything! That's what Power Rangers DO!”

“That's ridiculous!” the Pink Ranger growled, knocking the Black Ranger's hand away with her free one, “Sometimes you can't just 'hope' your way out of a situation! And how would you even 'save' that thing in this case?!”

“It may have been mostly controlled by a flute-based system,” Rich countered, “but the Dragonzord is still a Zord. It's gotta have a cockpit we can get to and either shut it down or at least keep it from wrecking everything and maybe force it back into the sea!”

“You're crazy!” Buff interjected, “I hate to say it, but Pinkie's right! Does THAT look like something you can control at all?!”

Ignoring Val's irritated growl, the Yellow Ranger pointed up at the Dragonzord as it struggled to extract its tail. Purple bolts of energy that started at the top of its head began to crackle down its body, the red chest lights changing color to purple as well. Two rows of jagged, purple and red-veined spikes began to grow out of the back of its head, flanking the bladed fin that was already there. The Zord opened its mouth to let out a frustrated sounding, hissing roar and exposed a new, secondary row of crystalline, jagged purple teeth.

“I concur with Rich,” Amber said suddenly, “It is illogical to annihilate it if it is not in control of its own actions and has returned from being manipulated before.”

Jason had been silent as he watched the argument, his body language unreadable. Suddenly, he stepped forward and started to ask, “Could you two answer me thi--?”

A loud screech of twisting metal interrupted him as the Dragonzord finally pulled its tail free, stumbling forward several steps in the process. The Rangers prepared for it to renew its hostility but it suddenly turned away from them, as if it had realized the tiny creatures before it were no threat and could be safely ignored. It began to march further inland, towards the city itself.

“It's headed for the city!” Rich exclaimed, “We got no time to wait!”

He then leaped off in pursuit of the Zord, Amber and Buff yelling at him to stop as Jason still watched thoughtfully.

“On that, we CAN agree,” Val growled before jumping off the rooftop in the opposite direction towards an open parking lot that would give her space to move.

Buff and Amber turned towards the space she had been a moment before but they were unable to call out to her before Jason, who had turned to look in Val's direction as well, spoke up. “Amber, go after Rich and back him up if he needs it. Buff, that goes for you with Val.”

The Blue and Yellow Rangers shared a look of confusion. “I believe I've established a rapport with Valestera more than Buff has,” the former argued, “And he and Rich have been interacting with each other for a much greater period of time than I have with either of them. Would it not be more logical to reverse our roles?”

“What she said,” the latter added.

“No time to explain right now,” Jason replied as he draw his Astro Blaster once more, “You're going to have to trust me. So get going!”

The sharp, firm tone in his voice got to both of them, Amber nodding her head as she said, “A-Affirmative.”

“Sure, okay,” Buff growled, “Fine.”

Once the two had jumped off in pursuit of their ordered targets, Jason sucked in a deep breath and aimed his weapon at the back of the Dragonzord's head. “Sorry about the cheap shot that's about to come your way but I can't let you leave here just yet, big guy.”

\\\

Val was starting to understand the limitations of Battle Borg technology. She had room to perform the movements necessary to control her machine but finding the right angle to keep the battlefield in sight was taking a few seconds longer than she liked.

“Hey! Pinkie! Wait up!”

The Pink Ranger winced at Buff's shout, refusing to look over her shoulder as the Yellow Ranger fell into step behind her. “What are YOU doing here?!”

“Looks like I'm your designated cheerleader for today,” Buff replied, “So I'm rooting for ya to recycle that outdated rust bucket!”

Finally finding a good enough spot, Val skidded to a halt as she grumbled, “At least someone's on my side.”

She clutched the Battle Borg's coin tightly in her hands as she began to chant, “Tidal energies of the galaxy, hear my call! Battle Borg! Power UP!”

Tossing the coin in the air, the Pink Battle Borg appeared in its flash of light just as a laser blast, fired from Jason's rooftop position, zapped outwards to bounce off the back of the Dragonzord's head. Turning around, the Dragonzord spotted the other robot and let out another screeching roar before starting to angrily stomp towards it.

“Got it moving in my direction so I don't have to chase it into the city,” Val muttered to herself before starting to run forward, “Not bad.”

Looking up in the direction the shot had come from, the Yellow Ranger shook his head once as he wondered just what their leader was playing at.

Matching Val's movements, the Pink Battle Borg ran forward as well to meet the Dragonzord's charge, lashing out with a hopping forward kick when they were close enough. The impact sent the larger, bulkier robot staggering back several steps before it turned to whip its tail around in a low, sweeping blow aimed at the Borg's legs. In response, the Battle Borg nimbly hopped over the sweep and then ducked under the return swing when the Dragonzord tried to lash its tail back the other way with a higher blow.

“Too slow, lizard lips!” the Pink Ranger taunted before pulling back her right fist and swinging it forward with all her might.

“Too slow, lizard lips!” the Pink Battle Borg mimicked in its distorted version of Val's voice as it too pulled back its right fist and swung forward with all its might.

The punch hit the Dragonzord in the center of its chest, sending sparks flying from the point of impact. The Zord attempted to counter with two lashing strikes of its hands but the Battle Borg easily weaved out of the way of both before countering with three elbow strikes to the Dragonzord's torso and then leaping up into the air to plant both of its feet on the Zord's chest with a dropkick.

Once again knocked back several steps but remaining on its feet, the Dragonzord's chest lights flashed several times as it aimed its fingers at the Battle Borg. More missiles slide into place at its fingertips and Val cartwheeled to the side several times to guide the Borg into following the motion and avoiding the incoming volley of projectile fire. The Dragonzord tried to track the Battle Borg with its fire but the smaller robot's greater speed proved to be too fast for it to do so.

Once the barrage of missile fire halted, the Pink Battle Borg jumped forward, crossing its arms in front of it as it lashed out with a flying, double-handed chop. The attack landed with enough force to send sparks flying from the point of impact but, once again, the Dragonzord was only knocked back slightly and showed no visible signs of damage.

“It's old,” Val grunted, “but it can still take a hit.”

“Just do what my coach tells the smaller guys when they spar with me!” Buff shouted encouragingly, “Stick and move! Stick and move! You'll wear him down before he catches up with you!”

The Dragonzord suddenly paused, purple arcs of energy rippling along its body for a second time. The lights on its chest began to flash rapidly in a pattern-less, almost panicked looking, rhythm before they started to distort and change shape into sharp spikes. Extending out of the holes on its fingers were not more missiles but serrated, purple crystal claws. Its face began to distort as well, two purple, horizontal tusks appearing on each side of its mouth as well as a star-shaped crest jutting out from its forehead.

“We don't have time to play the long game!” Val exclaimed, raising her right arm to the sky, “I have to finish this before the corruption gets any worse! Lightning Hand Command! NOW!”

As energy began gathering in the Pink Battle Borg's equally upraised arm, the Yellow Ranger shouted, “Chop 'em up good, Pinkie!”

Too focused on the moment to feel irritated at the nickname, Val let out a savage cry as she chopped downwards, the Battle Borg's glowing arm doing the same as it prepared to land its finishing move on the enemy Zord. That was when, with an unexpected burst of speed, the corrupted Dragonzord's hands clapped closed around the Battle Borg's arm, stopping the strike in mid-swing. “What the--?!” was all Val could exclaim before the Dragonzord heaved and shoved the Borg's arm back, knocking both the Aquitian and machine off balance.

Before either could recover, the Dragonzord lashed out with its new claws, sparks flying from where they slashed across the metal alloy of the Battle Borg's chest. Down below, the Pink Ranger cried out in pain from the feedback as the Dragonzord struck two more times with its claws before the drill on its tail tip began to spin. Turning to lash out with its tail, this time the blow hit home, the drill grinding against the Battle Borg's shoulder before something on the latter robot exploded and it was sent tumbling to the ground.

The Pink Ranger was also sent tumbling, only stopping when the Battle Borg hit the side of a half demolished factory. “Hey, you okay?” Buff called out, looking between her and the two giant robots in concern.

“I'm fine,” Val groaned, reaching up to feel her throbbing shoulder and flexing her fingers experimentally.

The Dragonzord shrieked and once more aimed its fingers at the downed Battle Borg, the claw-like fingertips shooting off like the missiles they had replaced. New ones almost instantly regenerated and were fired off as well, resulting in a seemingly ceaseless bombardment of projectiles. Still down on the ground, Val curled up to make the Battle Borg do the same, protecting its head and torso as much as she could as the launched crystals proved to be every bit as explosive as the previous weapons.

It felt as if every part of her was being punched and kicked as explosion after explosion impacted against the Borg's body, causing her to curl up even more. The Yellow Ranger looked on worriedly, turning towards the Dragonzord and starting to draw his Blade Blaster.

“N-NO!” the Pink Ranger screamed, “I-If you do that, it'll come over this way and step on us! I-I'm still okay! J-Just... n-need... to wait... for him... to stop... for just... a second.”

\\\

“Thanks for having my back, Amber,” Rich said as the two of them darted from rubble pile to rubble pile, “thought for sure Buff would be on my tail about this being a bad idea or something.”

Drawing closer and closer to the Dragonzord with each dash, Amber occasionally looked over at the battered Pink Battle Borg in concern. “You are welcome,” she said, “Though if we are to enact this rescue operation, it appears we must enact it promptly.”

The Black Ranger nodded in agreement as he looked up as well. “This thing is from the Dinozord era, so if its got a cockpit, its gotta be in the head,” he said thoughtfully, glad for whatever system in his helmet that was filtering out the worst of the explosive noise as the Dragonzord's assault continued, “and we can certainly jump high enough to reach there if we were in front of it but...”

“Our vertical movement would proceed to take us directly into the path of those projectiles,” Amber said, finishing the thought before adding her own, “So we would require redirecting its focus so that it ceases its bombardment and turns towards our direction, but in a way that does not result in it spotting our precise location before we can fully approach. But how--”

She received the answer to her unfinished question in the form of two blaster bolts high in the sky streaking past their location to strike the Dragonzord in its right eye, a small explosion emanating from where the beams hit a relatively soft spot. The Dragonzord instantly stopped firing, almost reflexively raising its hand to cover the damaged eye. Smoke leaked out from between its fingers as it turned to the right, looking around in an almost frantic matter as it tried to find the source of the shots.

For a moment, Amber wondered where the beams had come from as well, the angle too straight on to have been fired from any of the remaining rooftops. She was not given time to check behind her as Rich shouted, “That came from the Astro Blaster! Jas just gave us what we needed! Let's go!”

The Black and Blue Rangers leaped upwards, traveling up the Dragonzord's momentarily blinded side and landing on its head. They had expected needing to search for it but, to their surprise, the second their feet made contact a hatch on the Zord's head opened to let them fall inside. Rich found himself landing in a pilot's chair, a surprisingly bare control console before him that only had two small hand grips and a view port that looked out from between the Dragonzord's eyes. Amber landed standing behind him, feeling the rear wall against her back in the tight quarters.

Looking over her shoulder, Amber noticed that the rear wall was dominated by a large, glowing circle that has a white, three-toed dragon claw design in the center. The circle itself flickered between a soft green and a harsh purple color, an outward sign of the Zord's internal conflict.

“I'm in a Zord's cockpit,” Rich giggled to himself before clearing his throat and trying to keep himself focused as he took hold of the hand grips, “I'm gonna see how much control I get with these things.”

Amber noticed what looked like the cover for a circuit breaker on the opposite side wall from where she was and the Blue Ranger leaned over to open it, a blinking array of alien circuitry and wires being revealed. “I..” she said hesitantly, “shall attempt to deduce if any of these components are vulnerable to sabotage that would assist in halting the Dragonzord's movements.”

Rich nodded, noticing the Dragonzord had recovered enough that it was starting to move towards the still downed Battle Borg. He did not quite know how but, as he clutched the grips tighter, he began to have a basic idea of how the controls worked. It was far from second nature to him, but it was enough that he began squeezing down with his forefingers as he exclaimed, “I wanna help you, Dragonzord but first you gotta WHOOOOOOAAAAA!”

The Dragonzord's lower body kept walking forward but its upper body suddenly started to lean back, its arms flailing about as if someone had grabbed its non-existent hair. It let out an alarmed sounding shriek as it staggered in reverse, struggling to maintain its balance. To the amazement of those watching, the Zord began to stumble about drunkenly, swaying to the left and right as its arms continued to swing around wildly. One particularly violent lurch sent it into the ruins of a half-collapsed warehouse, making the Dragonzord's body shudder as it leaned forward and began shaking its head and upper body from side-to-side.

Inside the cockpit, the Black Ranger held onto the hand grips even more intently. Rich gritted his teeth under his helmet as the impact with the building and the Zord's violent rocking caused the cockpit to shake hard enough to make remaining in the chair difficult. Behind him, Amber let out a startled cry as she struggled to keep her own balance as her sides were slammed against the back wall and the back of the pilot chair over and over again. Still following the unknown instincts, Rich tried actively pulling on the grips as he grunted, “C'mon, Dragonzord! I said 'WHOA'!”

As the Dragonzord began hopping around on one foot, more purple lightning began crackling around its head. Inside the cockpit, the lightning began traveling up from the control grips and Rich grunted in pain from the sudden, intense electric shock shooting through him. Amber, who had started to reach forward to examine a circuit board more closely, looked over at him in alarm. “Are you okay?!” the Blue Ranger gasped in concern.

“Just... fine...” Rich groaned, still keeping his death grip on the controls, “I dunno if this is you or that crystal stuff, Dragonzord but c'mon! Please WHOA!”

As the Black Ranger continued to struggle with the controls and whatever will behind them that was fighting him, Amber tapped the side of her helmet to open communications with the Command Den and said, “Delta, would we be fortunate enough to be in possession of archived schematics for the Dragonzord's inner workings?”

To her surprise, instead of Delta-3 it was Sarah who responded to her question. “Sorry Amber,” she said, “Delta said he was going to be directing a particularly important part of finishing your Zords for the next ten minutes so he can't really talk right now. Afraid you're on your own.”

“U-Understood,” Amber replied, trying to keep the worry out of her voice as she resumed trying to make sense of the technology before her.

This had been a dumb idea, she self-chastised. It was a machine that was literally alien in nature, and despite its age still far more advanced than any tech that the planet Earth had ever possessed on its own. How could she possibly figure out how any of it worked in a meaningful way?

Wait, she realized, that clover-shaped device in the left hand corner actually did look familiar. It was identical to something she had seen in the Rad Bug and the way it was wired into another near-by device was the exact same way the one in that car had been connected to the engine technology she was familiar with. That most likely meant that the device this one was connected to served a similar purpose and if that was true, then she had a working hypothesis of what she could do if it became necessary.

She was drawn out of her musing as the Dragonzord shuddered again, this time as the result of the now recovered Pink Battle Borg having grabbed hold of its tail. “Forget about me?!” she and Rich heard from the other robot as it mimicked Val's voice.

The electricity shocking Rich stopped for the moment and the Black Ranger flexed his hands as he once more attempted to get the Dragonzord to stop with the controls. The Zords legs held still despite the fact its upper body strained forward, as if it were trying to break the paralysis through sheer force. At the same time, its tail squirmed in the Battle Borg's grasp, the Pink Ranger grunting from the effort as she could feel the raw strength of the Dragonzord under her fingertips. The drill on its tail tip started and stopped in irregular spurts as its arms pinwheeled about, and it seemed to be helpless as the four Rangers heard Jason exclaim over the communications gear in their helmets, “Good job, guys! You stopped it from moving together! Now we need to decide--”

His voice halted as Val let out a battle cry and, after shifting its grip so that it had the Dragonzord's tail tucked under its left arm, had the Battle Borg begin elbowing the tail with its right arm, striking at the vulnerable spots between the segments. “Hey!” Rich shouted in alarm as the cockpit shuddered at each impact, “What do you think you're doing?!”

“Trying! To!” Val snarled back, punctuating each exclamation with another elbow strike, “Damage! It! Enough for! You two! To get! Out!”

“We're not going anywhere!” Rich shouted, “I've got its legs locked down, so just keep holding the tail still and we can figure out how to get this crystal stuff off of it!”

“I said! That's not! Going! To work!”

“How do you know if you're not even going to try?!”

And how do YOU know she hasn't before?!” Buff suddenly interjected, “I know the Dragonzord was mostly a good guy in the past but if you could see what it's looking like out here now, you'd know that you gotta let the old nerd robot crush go before it starts really hurting people here and now!”

“And if YOU were cognizant of the scenario in here,” Amber shot back, a sharp note of frustration in her voice, “You would be showing reluctance to terminate this being in need of aide so callously!”

While used to his friend's hash tone, something about Buff's words struck a nerve in Rich and his iron grip on the controls loosened as he muttered, “It's not like I don't know that this guy's really dangerous right now...”

At the same time, Val was caught off guard at how aggressively the seemingly sweet, soft-spoken woman she was just getting to know had lashed out at her. Uncertainty began to well within her as she stopped her attack, the Pink Battle Borg's grip on the Zord's tail loosening as she muttered, “It's not like I WANT to destroy it...”

With both forms of restraint weakened, the Dragonzord let out a savage roar and lashed its tail upward. The movement fully broke the Battle Borg's grip, sending it and Val stumbling backwards. The purple energy surged and crackled around the Dragonzord's body with renewed intensity as its appearance mutated once more.

Its swooping, golden shoulders became thick, jutting spires of red-veined purple crystal. More crystal spikes grew out of its back, traveling down its spine and each segment of its tail. When it reached the tip, the drill was turned to crystal and encircled by four more, smaller crystalline drills. Even more spikes grew out of its knees and elbow, with the second row of crystal teeth growing enough in size to partially force the Dragonzord's mouth open into a jagged grin.

Still crackling with malevolent energy, the corrupted Zord whirled around to face the Battle Borg and unleashed an unexpected volley of purple and red laser beams from its eyes. The blast hit the Pink Battle Borg straight on the chest, setting off multiple explosions over its body as the smaller robot's armor threatened to buckle under the strain of trying to disperse such a tremendous amount of force. When the Dragonzord fired its new eye beams again, the Battle Borg tried to dodge but the damage it had taken slowed its response time enough that the blast hit the right side of its face.

The resulting explosion spun the Battle Borg around before it collapsed to its knees, clutching at its shattered and sparking right eye. Val collapsed as well, the part of her mind that knew her own physical eye was not actively damaged utterly overwhelmed by the waves of literally blinding agony that flowed across the psychic link.

“H-Hey,” Buff called out in helpless frustration, “Maybe it's time to pull back and rethink this a bit, Pinkie!”

The situation in the Dragonzord's cock pit was no less dire. A renewed wave of electrical shocks, far more powerful than the first, zapped Rich over and over again. He still held the controls tightly, the Black Ranger unwilling to let go despite the agony he was feeling. The lighting around Amber and himself had stopped flashing, solidly remaining on the ominous purple tone as Rich leaned into the energy. “Th-That the b-b-best you got?!” he grunted with a bravado he was clearly not feeling.

Amber was certain his Ranger suit was the only reason he had not already been fried to a crisp but it seemed he would not last much longer at the rate things were going. “This tactic is proving to be ineffective,” she shouted, “We must withdraw and reassess our strategy!”

“Can't!” Rich groaned as he struggled to not fall over, “I let go now, it'll rampage all over the city!”

Down below, Val simultaneously huffed as she struggled to get back to her feet, “I can't! If I don't destroy it now, it'll rampage all over the city!”

Amber realized Rich was not going to give up, so she needed to decide if she wanted to gamble on her theory being correct or not immediately.

Reaching out and grabbing hold of the clover-shaped device, the Blue Ranger began to pull at it with all the enhanced might she could manage. At first the device looked like it would hold fast, Amber's arms visibly quivering with the effort. Shifting her body around so she could plant her foot against the wall, the Blue Ranger redoubled her efforts. After a few more seconds there was the sound of tearing metal and snapping wires as the clover-shaped device forcibly came free.

The effects inside the cockpit were instantaneous, the Black Ranger's hands reflexively letting go of the controls as the electricity stopped flowing through him. He slumped back in the pilot seat, the arms of his suit visibly smoking as he groaned softly.

Deciding that indicated she was on the right track, Amber grabbed the insulated section of several severed wires and twisted them so that the exposed, sparking ends touched some of the exposed circuitry beneath the device she had removed.

The Dragonzord was once again covered with energy but, instead of the purple-tinted influence of the Oez Crystal, it was the blueish-white of pure electricity. Stopping in its tracks, the Zord twitched in place wildly before small but multiple explosions raced up and down its body. Inside of the cockpit, bolts of electricity and more minor explosions began dancing along the control panel and exposed circuitry as Amber threw one of Rich's arms over her shoulders. “Evacuation is now mandatory,” she said as she helped him stand.

“'Kay,” Rich mumbled as he shakily braced himself for their leap out.

Due to a combination of their haste and the Black Ranger's weakened condition, their escape was not as graceful as their entrance. Tumbling out of the still sparking Zord's head, the two were flipped over onto their backs as they began to fall towards the ground thirty stories below. Amber was uncertain if their powers would allow them to survive the impact and, even if they did, she knew the landing was going to be intensely painful. She closed her eyes, bracing for the sensation of her spine suddenly hitting concrete.

“Galaxy Glider! Hang ten!”

Instead of crashing into the ground, the Blue Ranger found herself grabbed out of mid-air by what felt like an arm around her waist. Whoever had caught her then deposited her so that she was standing on a smooth surface and her stomach momentarily lurched as she found herself rising upwards again.

Opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was the Red Ranger's back. Looking down, she saw that the two of them were standing on what appeared to be a flying, red surfboard with a rocket booster on the back, two small, curved, triangular wings on the front, and a silver, foot-level wind shield. Amber rested her free hand on Jason's shoulder to help balance herself, noticing that he had Rich slung over his other shoulder, the Black Ranger weakly lifting his head to look at the Dragonzord as the Galaxy Glider began to put distance between them and it.

“When I say 'whoa',” Rich groaned, “I MEAN 'whoa'.”

Shaking her head as Rich slumped back down, Amber looked up at Jason and asked, “Was this device how you were able to reach that unexpectedly fortuitous firing position to assist us with previously?”

“Yeah,” Jason replied, “it was like you with that Turbo Blade earlier. I was thinking about how I needed to get around faster to try and help both groups and then I just suddenly knew I could call out for this thing.”

Noticing the device still in Amber's other hand, Jason then asked, “So what's that you got there?”

“I am currently ninety-five percent certain that this is some form of energy regulator that also functions as the central hub for what appears to be a minor self-repair system,” Amber answered, “If I have deduced that correctly, then its removal and the additional energy feedback I induced should mean that any further structural trauma to anything that allows for locomotion will effectively delay the Dragonzord's aggression upon the rest of the city until its systems can reboot and reroute to back-ups to effect regenerative efforts.”

“So if we can get in a good enough parting shot to damage it,” Jason said, “It'll take longer to patch itself up and give us at least a little time to come up with a Plan C while it's on the mend.”

“Affirmative!”

Guiding the Galaxy Glider behind the cover of a half-wrecked factory so he could set Rich down on the ground, he asked over his in helmet radio, “Buff! Val! Think you can give us that shot?”

Buff realized Val was not going to give up, so he needed to figure out some other way to help.

“Not sure,” Buff replied, “Pinkie's looking pretty tapped out here.”

“I can still fight,” Val weakly groaned, as she and the Battle Borg made another attempt to stand that dropped them both back down to one knee.

“Can you even still SEE?! How are you expecting to hit anything even if--”

Looking up, he stopped as noticed something about the Dragonzord's body as the electricity began to fade and it resumed stalking towards the vulnerable Battle Borg. There was a small gap in the armor on its right hip and while he did not know if it was an old injury or something created during the current fight but he knew there was a potential way to exploit it.

“Pinkie, can you charge up that glowy arm thing one more time?!”

“Think so,” Val replied, the Pink Ranger's head starting to ache even more as she realized the intensity of the battle was making her reach the limit of her hydration far sooner than normal, “Why?”

“Power it up and when I give the word, you're gonna have to thrust upwards and to the right with it as hard as you can,” the Yellow Ranger answered, “And we don't have time to argue, so get ready!”

For a moment, the Pink Ranger looked like she was gathering herself up to object but instead her shoulders slumped as she whispered, “Lightning Hand Command...”

The Dragonzord was now fully on top of the Battle Borg, its purple eyes glowing malevolently as it stared down at its wounded prey. It hissed, as if it were declaring its victory, as it raised its clawed hands to strike.

“NOW!” Buff bellowed at the top of his lungs.

“NOW!” Val shouted, completing the command as the Battle Borg's arm was enveloped in energy and she sprang upwards, thrusting her arm out as instructed with every last bit of strength her body had remaining.

Caught utterly off-guard, the Dragonzord was unable to stop the Pink Battle Borg attack. The smaller robot's hand and most of its forearm speared into the gap in its side, cutting through, metal, servos and circuitry enough that the larger robot's legs stopped moving entirely, its tail falling lifelessly behind it.

“Got it!” Buff cried out triumphantly.

His joy was short lived as, while its lower body was paralyzed, the upper body of the Dragonzord still functioned. With an enraged scream, it opened its mouth wide, firing a torrent of energy beams from its maw, its eyes, the spikes on its chest, and even the crystals on its shoulders. The combined blast struck the Pink Battle Borg so hard it was bodily thrown through the air to crash land in the water of the bay, minus the arm that remained stuck in the Dragonzord's torso.

Val did not have enough energy left to scream, simply collapsing to a sitting position as she silently clutched at her limply hanging arm. Unable to take any more damage, the Battle Borg flashed out of existence, its coin landing next to Val with a deep crack down the center.

The Dragonzord continued to howl in fury, its beams firing in all directions but stuck in place such that it could only hit already destroyed buildings or empty ground.

“Okay,” Jason snapped, “We need to get out of here! Now!”

“Fortunately, Delta showed me where the emergency teleportation recall buttons for you guys were,” Sarah called out over the radio, “I'm hitting them now!”

“We'll be back for you, Dragonzord,” Jason muttered under his breath as he and the rest of the team were taken up by their own colored teleportation beams, “One way or the other.”

\\\

The doors to an elevator that had not been there when the team had left slid open, letting Delta-3 step back into the main chamber of the Command Den. “Valestera!” he all but screeched as he ran across the room towards the two medical examination tables that had been summoned, “Oh my my my! You've been injured!”

“It's not so bad now that the link has been turned off,” Val replied from where she sat up on the examination table on the left, her helmet on a small table to the side, “Just need a little extra water and maybe an ice pack and I'll be fine.”

Delta made a sound that was a combination of a whimper and a grunt before looking over at Rich on the right side examination table, his helmet also on a small side table. He sat up as well, even though his arms continued to dangle by his sides, and said, “I can still wiggle my fingers but they feel kinda numb. That's probably bad, isn't it?”

Delta-3 turned around and swiftly headed for a control console. “I'll get MRDs for the both of you and patch you both right up!”

“MRD?” Rich asked, noticing Val's slight twitch once Delta's back was turned and adding with a whisper, “Those things hurt, don't they?”

Val scowled at him but still whispered back, “Medical Recovery Devices can be... uncomfortable.”

On the other side of the room, Jason held his helmet under his arm as he alternated his gaze between his injured teammates and the image of the Dragonzord on the Viewing Ring above them. The Zord had stopped thrashing in place and blasting at its already leveled surroundings around one minute ago, presumably to focus on restoring mobility to its lower torso. He did not know if that meant they had hours or only a few more minutes to recover as well but, given the severity to which the Oez Crystal had already mutated the Zord, he was leaning towards the latter possibility being more likely.

A fist bumping against his shoulder drew his attention to Sarah, who was standing by his side and alternating her own gaze between him and the Dragonzord. “You wanna talk about what happened out there?” she asked, “You were being a little hands-off with all that.”

“Trying to make the best of a bad situation,” he replied, “They both had points and it wasn't like we had time to debate before the Dragonzord got into the city itself. Just wasn't expecting them to run off like that before I could get a word in. So it just seemed to make the most sense to send someone with them who'd be better for back-up considering what they wanted to do and help out where I could.”

“It's true,” Sarah agreed, “Buff probably would have just tried smashing everything instead of figuring out that gizmo like Amber did. And as smart as she is, Amber never would have noticed that opening to strike at like Buff did. But you really should have stopped at least one of them to focus on a single plan instead of splitting the difference.”

“Which one would you have stopped?”

Sarah opened her mouth to answer but stopped, frowning thoughtfully as she looked back up at the Dragonzord again. She seemed as surprised as Jason was by the uncertainty in her voice when she finally replied, “Probably Rich?”

“It's not that easy, once you start thinking about it, huh?”

Sarah grunted under her breath before asking in return, “So what are you going to do now?”

Jason narrowed his eyes determinedly as he stated, “Get some answers so I can ask some questions.”

He turned to where Delta-3 was walking back to the examination tables with what looked like an over-sized bar code scanner in each hand. “Hey Delta,” he called out, “I need to go over something with you real fast.”

“Of course, Jason,” Delta replied, holding out the devices towards Buff and Amber, who were sitting on a pair of summoned chairs with their helmets on their laps, “These are called MRDs. Point them at the body part that's injured, pull the trigger when the light on the back turns red and then keep holding it down until the light turns green.”

Taking the devices, Buff and Amber nodded at each other before heading towards Rich and Val respectively. Delta then made his way over to Jason, who quickly asked, “So is Val right? Once you get taken by that crystal stuff, it's all over?”

“So far,” Delta replied, “that's been the case every time we've encountered someone in that condition while we were on the run.”

“'So far'?” Jason and Sarah asked simultaneously.

Delta-3 tilted his head to the side in thought before answering with, “Well, given how quickly it mutates and regenerates whenever it's damaged, I've had a working theory that if you damaged the crystals on a host's body both repeatedly and rapidly enough it might be possible to overload and burn out the main shard controlling them from the inside.”

“But you haven't found anything that can hit that hard, fast, or consistently yet?” Sarah asked.

“I'm afraid not.”

Jason nodded. “Alright, next question. Sarah said you had to step out before because you were overseeing a part of finishing up our Zords. If you're back, does that mean they're ready?”

“The Zords themselves are finally ready, yes,” Delta-3 answered before he squirmed momentarily, “but the Megazord's sword isn't! I was originally planning to gather more combat data on all of you first so that it could be crafted to best fit your unified fighting style but I wasn't expecting things to escalate beyond the abilities of the Battle Borg so soon and I have no idea what to tell the Nanomorphs to make and oh my my my my my my!”

Jason hummed thoughtfully. “How long would this weapon take to finish if the drones started now?”

“It would depend. Probably not too long since they have the materials available but it would go a lot faster if they had a specific design in mind.”

“So we've got a blank slate to create something that can cut and stab a lot of times really hard and really quickly.”

Sarah's eyes suddenly widened and a smirk came to her lips as she said, “Jason, I know EXACTLY what you're thinking of.”

Jason smirked as well. “I figured. Think you can walk Delta through it?”

At Sarah's nod, he looked back over towards the other Rangers and said, “Thanks. Now I can go ask those questions.”

Meanwhile, across the room, Amber was wordlessly running the MRD over Val's shoulder, the Aquitian squirming at the tingling sensations running up and down her arm. The silent treatment was proving to be equally uncomfortable and Val finally asked, “I've disappointed you, haven't I?”

“For the sake of full transparency,” Amber replied tersely, “I can only answer in the affirmative.”

After a moment to shift her aim to the next injured spot, Amber added, “You spoke about your enthusiasm for being a Ranger so intently, I was unprepared for you to abandon their major tenets of teamwork and trust for the sake of your own independent actions.”

“I'm sorry,” Val said as she looked down at her lap, once again surprised at how much Amber's disappointment upset her, “It's just been me and Delta for a long while now and we've been through a lot. A lot we haven't really had a chance to tell anyone about yet. I know it's no excuse but I'm still getting used to having... someone else there to tell it to.”

Amber sighed, a small smile coming to her lips as Val's tone and body language convinced her that she was legitimately remorseful. “Once this situation has been satisfactorily resolved,” she said, “perhaps we can spend more time getting you acclimated to that concept.”

“I'd like that,” Val replied as she smiled back and fought the urge to twitch as the MRD repaired a particularly sensitive spot on her shoulder.

“This thing working?” Buff asked as he held his MRD over Rich's arm, which he pulled straight to keep the limb steady.

“I can feel you crushing my wrist now,” Rich replied through gritted teeth, “So I'd say it's working.”

“I should crush your stupid nose,” Buff growled, letting the limb go once he saw the light on the bock of the MRD turn green, “Or maybe your entire moronic face. What were you THINKING out there?!”

Rich smiled ruefully as he replied, “Honestly? What we used to play together whenever we finished making a sand castle in the park's sandbox or at the beach on the lake.”

Buff had to think about that for a few seconds before saying, “'Green Ranger and Dragonzord Smash Rita's Palace'? Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Rich all but whispered as he rubbed his wrist with his other hand, “And it just felt so WRONG that we've only just started being Power Rangers and one of the first things we have to do is destroy something that's so important to our history? I just couldn't take it, best bud--”

Buff slapped him on the back of the head, Rich's eyes widening in surprise as he let out a yelp of pain. “Uh uh,” Buff grunted, “You don't get to call me that. MY best buddy tells me what's eating him instead of just doing weird crazy things on his own.”

He turned away from Rich slightly, folding his arms under his chest as he huffed, “Or at least he will from now on. RIGHT?!”

Rich rubbed the back of his head and sighed as he replied, “Yeah.”

Jason, having finally made his way over, looked between the two pairs of his four teammates. “First things first,” he said, “You two going to be okay?”

After both Val and Rich nodded, Jason turned towards the former and said, “I get that we've barely known each other twenty-four hours and you've obviously been through more than you've had a chance to tell us about yet. But even if you're just that used to working alone, you're part of our team now. If someone objects to something you want to do, you're going to have to trust me to address it real fast without you flying off the handle like that. Understand?”

He then turned to Rich. “And not gonna lie. You HAVE known me long enough that it hurt a bit when you ran off without letting me get a word in. I know this Ranger stuff means a lot to you but if I'm the Red Ranger then I need to trust you to trust me in doing Red Ranger things. Got it?”

Seeing that both of them were digesting his words, Jason took a breath before saying to the entire group, “Delta just let me know our Zords are ready to go.”

The other Rangers reacted with a wide range of emotions. Amber looked nervous but curious, while Buff had an eager grin on his face. Val's expression became one of grim determination while Rich's became one of wide-eyed glee. “But before we go out there again,” Jason said as he returned his attention to Val and Rich, “I need each of you to answer a question for me.”

Jason first turned to Rich. “If we can't save the Dragonzord, we're going to need all five of us working together to destroy it. If it comes to that, will you go through with it?”

Rich's expression quickly grew more somber as he looked over at Val. “It let us in, y'know,” he all but whispered, “Some part of it's still in there and obviously wants help stopping itself. But if it really comes down to it or the city? I... think I can do it.”

Nodding in acceptance, Jason turned to Val. “And if there's a chance we can save the Dragonzord, even if it's only around a one percent chance or less, that's going to take all five of us working together too. If we tried that, even if it seemed hopeless, will you still work with us to do it?”

Val's expression softened ever so slightly, looking over at Rich with a small note of sympathy in her eyes. “I really meant it when I said I don't want to destroy it. I just haven't seen any other choice before. But I guess at some point you have to try for something more... hopeful.”

Jason nodded again. “Then it sounds like, even if we don't like all the words on it, we're all on the same page for now.”

“In that case,” Delta said from directly behind Jason, startling the five as they all turned to look at the robot, “allow me to give you your new Power Chips.”

Delta handed a red Chip to Jason that had the image of a rounded spaceship embedded into it. “This, Jason,” he said, “Will allow you to launch the Astro-Megafighter Amalgam Zord.”

Walking over to Amber, he handed her a blue Chip which had the image of a tear-shaped car on it. “Amber, with this the Nova Racer Amalgam Zord is yours to control.”

Turning around, Delta gave Rich a black Chip with the embedded image of a stallion pulling along some kind of roman-looking pillar upon it. “Rich, this will let you roll out the Stallion Amalgam Zord.”

Turning around again, the robot held up a yellow Chip for Buff which had a more rounded, robotic looking Allosaurus design on it than the Power Chip he used to transform. “Buff, you may now call upon the mighty Allosaurus Amalgam Zord.”

Facing Val, Delta-3 handed her a pink Chip with a snarling fox design on it. “Valestera, this is your Pink Fox Amalgam Zord. It's as cunning and pure-hearted as you are.”

Buff snorted in amusement as he commented, “Just ask her out already instead of fishing with the extra compliments.”

“What?! No!” Delta snapped as Val glowered at Buff, “First of all, she's my friend! Secondly, how would that even work?!”

“Bufford's just yanking your power cable,” Sarah called out, “don't pay him any--”

Her eyes widened in alarm as movement on the Viewing Ring caught her attention and she grew visibly tense as she said, “Guys, Dragonzord's starting to move again!”

Looking up as well, the five Rangers saw the Dragonzord's eyes flare back to life with a purple glow as its tail lifted off the ground to sway behind it once more. After taking a few tender steps to make sure its legs were working again, the crystal corrupted Zord appeared ready to resume its march onto the city proper.

“Perfect timing,” Jason grumbled as the others scrambled to grab their helmets, “What's the status on the sword, Delta?”

“Still not done yet,” Delta replied, “but the Nanomorphs are following the design Sarah gave me, so I'd estimate you'll need to keep the Dragonzord busy for three to five minutes once you arrive.”

“Alright then,” Jason said, looking at the others gathering around him, “Everyone ready?”

As the rest of the team nodded at him, Sarah asked, “You sure you're going to be able to do this?” Sarah ashed, “Amber's the only one of you with a license and I'm not sure it's rated for giant robots.”

“Our powers have previously enhanced out combat and weapons knowledge,” Amber replied, “It would be logical to presume they would provide assistance in this endeavor as well.”

“And if not, we'll figure it out as we go,” Jason added before gathering himself up and proclaiming, “But for now, we need to get back to the action!”

\\\

Teleporting back to the battlefield, the Power Rangers found themselves staring up at the back of the Dragonzord. Each of them tightly gripped their new Power Chips as Jason stepped forward and inserted his into a secondary slot on the top of his Morph In Belt behind the one holding his transformation Chip. “ASTRO-MEGAFIGHTER!” the Red Ranger shouted, “TAKE OFF!”

“LAUNCHING ZORD!” the Belt intoned in response.

Somewhere in the farmlands of Angel Grove, a long abandoned farmhouse shuddered as the ground beneath it, the near-by barn, and the grain silos began to slide to the right. The shifting ground revealed a deep hole, out of which a launch pad rose. On the launch pad, its snub-nosed front pointed to the sky, was a large, mostly circular, red spaceship. The center section on the front was dominated by a large, blue-tinted, wedge-shaped windshield and on the back were too square, silver colored rocket boosters.

The rocket boosters roared to life, spewing out a massive cloud of water vapor and smoke as the ship rose up off the ground, the flare of light looking momentarily like a shooting star that had reversed course to try and return to space. Once it was high enough, the spaceship sharply turned to fly forwards at high speed towards the one who would pilot it.

“PINK FOX! AMALGAM ZORD!” the Pink Ranger cried before inserting her Chip,” POWER UP!”

“UNSEALING ZORD!” her Belt confirmed.

Deep in Angel Grove Forest and Nature Preserve there was a river with a massive waterfall. Suddenly appearing through the torrents of falling water was a pair of glowing pink eyes. The source of the glowing eyes was a four-legged, pink colored Zord, it's sleek body and silvery head, legs and tail cast in the image of a fox, that leaped out of the cave behind the waterfall and through the crashing water. It's head and tail eagerly perked up, its legs were a blur as it ran on top of the river towards the one who would wield it.

“I CALL UPON THE POWER OF THE ALLOSAURUS!” the Yellow Ranger bellowed as he slammed his Chip home.

“AWAKENING ZORD!” was the reply his Belt gave.

In one of Angel Grove's abandoned rock quarries, the ground suddenly and explosively split apart. Fire belched upwards from the opening, as if a vein of magma had been pierced to release something primordial onto the world. Out of the flames rose a yellow and silver, bipedal Zord shaped and stylized like an outdated concept for one of the mightiest apex predators of the ancient dinosaur world. Radiating a primal fury, the Allosaurus Zord stepped out onto even ground and began to stomp towards the one it would lend its power to.

“I NEED STALLION ZORD POWER!” the Black Ranger shouted, his heart racing as he placed his Chip in its slot as well, “NOW!”

“FIRING ZORD!” his Belt responded.

High atop the snow covered peaks of Angel Grove Mountains, a hidden hatch on the highest point slid open and a giant cannon extended out from it. After taking a moment to aim in the direction of the city, the cannon fired, shaking the mountains around it with the force of its blast.

The projectile that was shot out of the cannon was a black and gold robot in the shape of a stallion, a pair of chains attached to the bit in its mouth letting it pull along a black and gold weapon platform that resembled a roman-looking pillar with a multi-barreled Gatling Cannon on top. It galloped through the air, racing towards the one it would aide.

“NOVA RACER!” the Blue Ranger called out as she firmly clicked in her Chip, “ACCELERATE!”

“REVVING UP ZORD!” her Belt replied.

In downtown Angel Grove, the sound of squealing tires emanated from somewhere deep inside a long abandoned underground parking garage. Roaring out up the exit ramp and onto the street was a blue, tear-shaped car with a wedge-shaped windshield that took up most of the front end, a large concave spoiler on the back end, and rear tires that were far larger than those on the front.

The car began racing down the road as it was enveloped in blue energy and, in a flash of light, expanded to more than five times its previous size. Still fitting on Angel Grove's over-sized highways, the machine sped towards the one that would drive it.

The five Zords quickly met up, continuing their journey towards the Rangers in a v-shaped formation. The Astro-Megafighter was at the vanguard as the Stallion Zord landed to race alongside Nova Chaser while the Pink Fox and Allosaurus Zords took up the rear.

“There they are!” Jason called out as he pointed towards where the five machines appeared over the horizon, “So do we jump up into them or--”

A beam of light in the color if its respective pilot shot out from each Zord, striking the appropriate Ranger and teleporting them to their cockpits.

“Well, that answers that,” Jason remarked as he landed in his seat and reflexively took hold of the flight stick in front of him.

“Quite the change from the Battle Borg,” Val muttered to herself as she placed her hands down on the large metallic control pads in front of her.

“Somehow, I expected this thing to be even bigger,” Buff said as he took hold of the hand grips in front of him.

“This is quite the prodigious new car smell,” Amber gasped as she clutched the steering wheel.

“Oh man, these things actually DO have stereos!” Rich giggled as he gripped his Zord's twin control sticks.

Looking at the Megafighter's view screen, Jason saw that the Dragonzord had turned towards them. It seemed the promise of a foe to battle was still more enticing to it than a cruel rampage but there was no telling how much longer that would remain the case. “As much as I'd love to give these things a proper shakedown,” he said, “We're gonna have to go straight to Megazord for this one!”

As soon as the words finished leaving Jason's lips, the Power Chip for his Zord popped out of his Belt. He reflexively caught it and, given the sounds of surprise he heard over the radio, guessed the same had happened to the others. A slot on his console snapped open, the insides glowing faintly with red light, and he knew what to do. “Okay, everyone,” the Red Ranger called out, “On three!”

“ONE! TWO! THREE!” the five shouted together as they inserted their Chips into the slots that were glowing their respective colors and then held on as their machines began to transform.

The nose of the Megafighter split in half vertically, the two halves and the circular outer sections of the Zord swinging around to transform its profile from a UFO-shaped spaceship to a torso with leg stumps.

The chains at the Stallion Zord's mouth detached and retracted into the sides of the pillar-like weapon platform. The Stallion circled around to stand side-by-side with the platform as it rolled to a halt, the Gattling Cannon suddenly flying off and teleporting to somewhere else. At the same time, the Stallion's legs folded up against its sides before the back two-thirds of its body swiveled upwards, completing their transformation into a pair of legs and feet. Square shaped slots opened on the top of both legs, which the leg stumps of the Astro-Megafighter were able to attach to as it landed on the two halves of the Stallion Zord with a loud, metallic click.

The Pink Fox Zord jumped into the air, its tail swiveling up to lock in to a depression on its back as its legs curled up against its sides. A metallic gauntlet, its fingers extended in a knife-edged chop, teleported in and locked onto the front of the Fox, covering its head. Its transformation into an arm complete, the Zord attached to the left side of the Astro-Megafighter's torso.

The Allosaurus Zord leaped upwards as well, its small arms drawing up against the sides of its chest as its legs did the same against its lower torso. The Zord's chest popped open to allow the head to rotate inside, revealing a clenched fist beneath it. Once the chest closed and the tail flipped around to become a shoulder spike, its transformation into another arm was complete and it attached to the right side of the Astro-Megafighter's torso.

Nova Chaser sped past the mostly completed body, putting some distance between the two of them before making a hard U-turn. As it raced back towards the combined machines, the windshield on what was now the Astro-Megafighter's chest partially swung open. At the same time, booster rockets fired to life on the bottom of the car-based Zord, launching it into the air. The back end of Nova Chaser detached from the rest of the vehicle, with the spoiler detaching from that in turn, and rotated around to reveal the underside of that section was a silver robotic face with solid yellow eyes and a metal plate covering its lower half.

The rest of Nova Chaser fell into the angled opening provided by the Astro-Megafighter, the windshield closing to lock it into place and revealing the large, white, circular crystal in the center of its silvery undercarriage that was in the same design as the crystals on each of the Ranger's Morph In Belts. Magnetic energy shot out from the top of the Megafighter, pulling in the head and turning it into position as the spoiler split in half down the middle. The head attached to the top of the torso, the two spoiler halves connecting to the sides of the head to give the appearance of a finned helmet.

Their Zords now combined as one, the five Rangers found themselves transported to a new, central cockpit big enough for all five of them with Jason in the center, Buff and Rich to his left and Amber and Val to his right. The team looked out the view screen in front of them to see the corrupted Dragonzord staring back at them, looking almost surprised to realize what was now standing before it.

“AMALGAM MEGAZORD!” they cried as energy visibly coursed over the new robot's body and its eyes flashed to golden life, “POWER UP!”

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
